Wolfgang Van Halen successfully lives up to his family name while carving out a separate identity and sound on his debut album, Mammoth WVH.

This is quite a narrow needle to thread, at an undeniably difficult time for the younger Van Halen, whose guitar-hero father Eddie died in October 2020.

In addition to his personal grief, the reverence and protective bubble surrounding the elder Van Halen's legacy was at a fever pitch.