Wolfgang Van Halen names his five favourite guitar players
When it comes to titles, Wolfgang Van Halen usually keeps things simple. He named his hard rock outfit Mammoth (formerly Mammoth WVH due to trademark issues), after one of the bands his legendary dad Eddie played in before forming Van Halen. The project’s first album was self-titled. Then, its second was given the logical moniker Mammoth II. Now, though, album three is breaking tradition, brandishing the somewhat ominous title of The End.
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“The evolution from the second album to this one warranted this being the first album to actually be titled,” Wolfgang tells me. “This just didn’t feel like Mammoth III to me. There’s a lot of songwriting evolution and maturity and confidence that I don’t think were there on the last two. It just felt like the right time to actually break out.”
In contrast to his dad’s famously exuberant work as the guitarist for Van Halen, Wolfgang started his career playing less showy rock’n’roll music, inspired by the likes of Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails to focus on the song rather than the shred. However, on The End, things feel less conscious, more fun. The title track opens with some invigorating guitar tapping that may seem like an homage to Eruption, but it’s actually a sequence that Wolfgang’s had in his back pocket for more than 10 years. Plus, throughout the rest of the album, there’s more soloing and theatricality, without compromising the simplicity and directness of Mammoth’s trademark hooks.
“This pre-production process was a bit different in comparison to the last few,” says Wolfgang. “Instead of doing it on my laptop, we had the studio all ready to go. I would just try something [on guitar], run out to the drums, play it, run back and play bass to it, and it was this really creative, electric, quick-reaction environment. You could tell if something was working or not right away, rather than wasting three hours on a computer trying to figure it out.”
Given the greater focus on the guitar on this new album, we went on to ask Wolfgang to name his five favourite guitar players. His answers ranged from the very obvious to the totally unexpected.
Image: Travis Shinn
Aaron Marshall, Intervals
“Aaron is a close personal friend of mine, so it’s a bit tough to separate that, but, man, he’s probably my most favourite guitar player out there right now. What’s so fantastic about him is that he has this melodic sensibility that’s unrivalled by a lot of other guitar players. Rather than being shreddy, he’s almost the singer of his band, as well as the solo guitar player. The first song off of his album [2020] album Circadian, 5-HTP, is probably one of my favourite songs ever. I know the guys get sick of it: every time I have a guitar in drop D at soundcheck, I end up playing that song.
“Growing up, you hit these phases of, like, ‘I wanna hear more of this type of music.’ When I heard Meshuggah for the first time, I started exploring and found Periphery and Tesseract, and then I came upon Intervals. I was like, ‘This is exactly my shit.’ I really fell in love with Aaron’s playing on their [2012] EP In Time, the songs Epiphany and Tapestry.
“I was already a huge, huge fan of his, and then Mammoth came out. He messaged me and said he liked my albums, which blew my mind. I couldn’t believe that! Through the magic of social media, we met and hung out a handful of times, and we were actually able to tour together last year, which was really cool.”
Adam Jones, Tool
“I think, in terms of every instrument I play – bass, guitar, drums and singing – each member of Tool is on the respective Mount Rushmore for their instrument. The first song I heard from them was Third Eye [from 1996’s Ænima], which is funny, because it wasn’t a single or anything. It kind of opened my mind – opened my third eye, so to speak – regarding what music can be. I was like, ‘This is a 13-minute song! Not just a four-minute thing!’ It blew my mind when I was in seventh grade. There’s power in its simplicity: when Adam just holds down the rhythms and almost lets Justin [Chancellor, bass] take the lead, they have such a great connection.
“When it comes to rhythm playing, Adam is almost like the Malcolm Young of metal. He is such a fucking awesome rhythm guy, and he’s a great lead guy, too. Things like the talkbox solo on Jambi are just the best.
“In Mammoth, the influence of bands like Tool and Meshuggah will come out in places you don’t expect. If you listen to [the song] The End, the very end of it, there’s this double-kick, half-time, metal-ey thing. They just pop up! Even on the last album [2023’s Mammoth II], on Right?, there’s that Meshuggah-ey breakdown in the middle after the solo. It’s never intentional: I try not to stifle the creative process by overthinking and just do what feels right.”
Eddie Van Halen
“There was a benefit I played in fourth grade where I played drums and my dad played guitar. I remember, we went out to the car afterwards and some guy came up and asked him to sign something. He left, then he put on a different shirt and came back. I think – in moments like that, seeing that sort of desperation – I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, my dad’s probably a big deal, huh?’
“When it comes to Dad, people always talk about the tapping and the shredding and stuff, but I think very much what he instilled in me is that melody is song. If you can hum it, if you can think of it and sing it, that’s the best kind of solo – which is another reason why I love Aaron so much! But, yeah, I think his ability to not only be an amazing rhythm guitar player, but just to merge melody with the shreddiness, and never letting melody fall, is a very important thing as a musician. While shredding scales is technically impressive, it’s almost artistically stale.
“My dad was a great guitarist but a terrible guitar teacher – he’d tell you that himself. He even called [Mr Big and Racer X guitarist] Paul Gilbert one time and asked him if he would give me a lesson, and he laughed his ass off. That just shows you how he felt about being a teacher. And, yeah, he was right. He’d be like, ‘Just do it like this.’ ‘Well, how?!’ You’re at such a different level, you’re just not even thinking in the same way.”
Angus Young and Malcolm Young, AC/DC
“I couldn’t keep going without talking about AC/DC and how important those brothers are. I’m usually not the most bluesy guy – I respect it, but it’s just not my vibe – but what I love about Angus is how he manages to take the relaxing, sort of scaly stuff of blues and add this anarchistic punkiness to it, just by being so fucking crazy. It’s attitude: it almost doesn’t matter what he’s playing, it’s how he’s playing it. Look at songs like Down Payment Blues from [1978 album] Powerage. The solo is one note, and it’s also one of my dad’s favourite solos ever.
“Angus is still an incredible showman in his 70s. I know some people try to poke and make fun of him [for still wearing his schoolboy stage outfit aged 70], but I’d love to see you fucking do that. Personally, I try to avoid that sort of 80s-esque performance stuff. I get a lot of criticism from 80s music fans who love Van Halen, see me and go, ‘Why aren’t you jumping around?’ My idea is somebody like Tool or Meshuggah: they just stand on the stage and fucking destroy.
“Malcolm, to me, is the greatest rhythm guitar player to have ever lived. There’s nothing more perfect than his rhythm, his metre, his timing, and his tone was out of this world. If you listen to something like If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It), there’s nothing like it. And he did some of the best background vocals ever, like on TNT and Thunderstruck.”
Mark Tremonti, Alter Bridge/Creed
“Mark is another guitarist where he’s got the shred but he knows what makes a song good. The shred never overtakes that. I think people are so surprised that the dude from Creed can shred like that. I don’t think enough people recognise how important Alter Bridge are and the versatility they have: you have [acoustic ballad] Watch Over You, but then you have [heavy metal track] Cry of Achilles.
“I was in Mark’s solo band from 2012 to 2016. I’m on [the albums] Cauterized and Dust, which is pretty funny, because I only played one or two shows of that material. I toured the whole first album [2012’s All I Was], and that was the first time I came to the UK and Europe to tour. He became a personal friend. He’s such a silly, fun dude. He doesn’t take anything too seriously.”
The End is out on 24th October via BMG.
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