The guy is a technically proficient soloist and was initially innovative with his finger tapping style and all but, I really lost interest in anything that Van Halen did after about their third album. EVH's style also has a tendency to be a bit soulless. He's fast, he impresses people with his fingers flying up and down the fretboard and his wall of amps and his flashiness but, there always seemed to me to be a lack of real substance to his material. EVH (and Van Halen as a band for that matter) always came off to me as a real 'flash in the pan' act and never really did anything that I would consider very visceral or essential, it was just California party cock-rock turned up to ten and when he switched to keyboards I switched the dial.
