Van Halen: New Vinyl Box Set Honors ‘Van Hagar’ Era

Van Halen is releasing a new box set honoring the "Van Hagar" era of the band.

The Collection II is due out on October 6 and features remastered versions of the four studio albums Sammy Hagar fronted the band: 1986's 5150, 1988's OU812, 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and 1995's Balance. Additionally, the box set features Studio Rarities 1989-2004, a collection of rarities and b-sides.

Hagar said in a statement on the box set, "These records were recorded before (without) ProTools or digital recording: it was analog on real to reel tape recorders. There's a very special sound to that type of recording. We were careful not to destroy any of that, but to re-master with more modern technical equipment to bring out that wonderful magical sound."

Bassist Michael Anthony added, "So excited about our Sammy era box set coming to ya!! Our longtime studio engineer Donn Landee remastered these albums, and they are kicking ASS!!"

The Collection II is available for pre-order in a variety of formats and via various retailers here.

Eddie Van Halen was the most influential guitarist of our generation.

Of course, flashy, fleet-fingered guitarists were a dime a dozen in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Eddie was better than all of them, but he was more than that. A songwriter, a keyboardist, a studio wizard, ¼ of Van Halen’s four-part harmony team and a band leader that was able to guide VH through losing the most distinctive frontman of the ‘80s and led them to four chart-topping albums with Sammy Hagar.

Here, we take on the tough task of ranking their top 30 songs. (It was really, really tough to cut any of the songs on the first six albums from this list.)