A Different Kind of Truth is the twelfth and final studio album by American rock band Van Halen.

It would also be Van Halen's final studio album before Eddie's death and the group's subsequent disbandment in 2020.

In 2007, Van Halen reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth – who had left the band in April 1985, at the peak of their global popularity – for a North American Tour.

"[3] Eddie, Wolfgang, and Alex Van Halen began jam sessions at the former's 5150 Studios three months after the tour's completion.

[4] Roth decided to join the project after hearing this song, as well as two other reworked tracks: "Let's Get Rockin'" – later renamed "Outta Space" – and "Bullethead".

Eddie said that he was relieved to relinquish some of the production work to his son, who was considered by the band to be acting in a co-production role: frequently talking to Shanks, being consulted by his father on the musical direction and developing the songs.

[3][4] Along with creating new bits, such as a new breakdown on "She's the Woman"—as the original ended up being used on Fair Warning's (1981) "Mean Street"—and an arrangement for "Stay Frosty".

[6] Hogarth aimed to "bring Ed's guitar sound into the modern era, but maintaining all the DNA of the past."

An instrumental version of the song, titled "Ripley", appeared in Eddie's score for the film The Wild Life.

[10] Roth rewrote the lyrics for most tracks, as he wanted to incorporate a point of view from his current personal life.

[6] Roth also performs acoustic guitar on the intro for "Stay Frosty", a song he had written which was re-arranged by Wolfgang, and is reminiscent of "Ice Cream Man", a track from Van Halen's 1978 debut.

[13] The band briefly entered into negotiations with Columbia Records, but these stalled after Roth indicated he would not sign with the label.

In November 2011, the band signed with Interscope Records, after its chairman Jimmy Iovine became personally involved in negotiations.

1 selling rock song in the United States, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands, while also charting in Sweden, Belgium, Germany and the UK.

[18] The record was released on February 7, 2012, in both standard and deluxe edition versions, with the latter containing a bonus DVD titled The Downtown Sessions.

[22] Its music video was released online on April 13,[23] and on May 4 a promotional vinyl 7-inch single was serviced to 83 independent record stores to be given with purchases of A Different Kind of Truth.

[24] The band members opted to avoid excessive promotional press, an attitude that Roth described as "a sterling statement" on them not following "so many people on television telling you why you should buy something".

Smog co-owner John Heiden picked the image, featuring a New York Central Railroad J-3A Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive, photographed by Robert Yarnall Richie, from the Southern Methodist University's photo library, stating he chose it because "Richie's angle on the photo makes it look like the locomotive is in motion and coming off the page.

[47] The Guardian gave the album four stars out of a possible five, calling it was a "frequently thrilling return" with songs that "crackle, fizz, and bulge with priapic exuberance".

[40] Likewise, AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album four stars out of five and wrote: "Van Halen are using their history to revive their present and they succeed surprisingly well on A Different Kind of Truth.

[48] Spin wrote, "the frantic, haute-for-teacher 'As Is' and the mid-tempo shoulda-been-the-single 'You and Your Blues' can hang with any heavy-breathing romp they made in their heyday.

"[43] Jerry Shriver of USA Today gave the album 3.5/4 stars, saying that "this is the true kick in the butt that arena rock desperately needs.

"[45] However, in the newspaper's year-end retrospective, Edna Gundersen listed A Different Kind of Truth among the overrated albums of 2012, stating that "the reheated meat-and-potato riffs of Van Halen's past had critics swooning and fans panting, but vanished from the charts after the band's tour was scrapped" and the album got shut out of Grammy Award nominations.

[50] Rolling Stone named "Stay Frosty" the 16th best song of 2012,[51] and the magazine's readers ranked it the fifth best album of the year.

3 on the Oricon chart, and was one of the few albums by western artists to appear on their year-end tally, finishing at number 89 with 79,517 copies sold.