The last song that Eddie Van Halen worked on with his brother before he passed away has been released in its entirety.
Unfinished was first teased back in August, when it was revealed the audiobook version of Alex Van Halen’s imminent tell-all memoir, Brothers, would feature the final track he and Eddie ever worked on together.
A few weeks later, a snippet of the song was released, giving fans the opportunity to hear the late electric guitar great solo once again over what seemed to be a fully instrumental track.
Now, with the hugely anticipated memoir set to hit shelves in the US today (October 22), the full version of Unfinished has finally been shared.
This could well be the last time we’ll hear new EVH material in this form. Sure, there’s a rumored archive of unreleased Van Halen material somewhere, but those close to the Van Halen camp claim there’s a slim chance of that ever seeing the light of day.
And so it seems Unfinished might well be the final chance to hear some new Eddie material – and that alone easily makes it one of the year’s most anticipated guitar releases.
Fortunately, there’s enough in the six-minute full-length track to really sink into: plenty of operatic acoustics (with even some Led Zep flair in there), lashings of atmospheric ambient reverb soundscapes and, of course, some good ol’ fashioned Eddie shredding.
Those familiar fretboard theatrics come to the fore around the 4:35 mark, at which point the guitar god lets loose on an extended whammy-heavy, gain-drenched lead effort that taps into his world-beating phrase book.
The track is indeed fully instrumental, much more finished than “Unfinished” initially implied, and will be used to soundtrack Alex's narration.
However, while it’s likely we won’t hear a full Eddie Van Halen solo again, Alex has already discussed the possibility of using AI to finish some “little pieces” and “a bunch of licks” of EVH recordings to flesh out more material in the future.
Alex Van Halen’s upcoming memoir is set to be a Van Halen account like no other, with a press announcement previously stating how he “wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death”.
Over the past few weeks, the band’s founding drummer has been giving readers sneak previews of his memoir over a series of interviews. Speaking to Rolling Stone, he claimed David Lee Roth prevented the formation of a tribute tour because the vocalist refused to pay tribute to Eddie during the shows.
In that same conversation, he revealed he and Eddie had jammed with Chris Cornell, and planned an Ozzy Osbourne-fronted Van Halen album.
Then, while in conversation with The Guardian, Alex discussed Eddie’s iconic contributions on Michael Jackson’s Beat It, revealing he was furious when he found out his brother had tracked a solo for the pop smash.
Unfinished can currently be downloaded from the Van Halen website.
