Wolfgang Van Halen and his Mammoth bandmates get a lot more than they bargained for in the video for their new song “The End,” which find the group’s high-energy rock music turning a club audience into violent zombies, werewolves and vampires. The video was directed by Robert Rodriguez and pays homage to his 1996 classic From Dusk Till Dawn, and also includes special effects by Greg Nicotero.
Slash, Danny Trejo, Myles Kennedy and Van Halen’s mother, actress Valerie Bertinelli, all make cameos in the clip. The song itself was inspired by a guitar riff that has been kicking around Van Halen’s brain for years.
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“I’ve had the tapping idea on the intro for ‘The End’ since before Mammoth [but] I was able to fit it into this world,” he says. “It’s still over-the-top and shreddy, but it’s also melodic and controlled. Overall, I was doing some different things on the record, and I knew this was going to be a big step. Once we finished ‘The End,’ it felt really special to me.”
Further details have yet to emerge about Mammoth’s next album, which will be the follow-up to 2023’s Mammoth II.
Van Halen and Mammoth will support Creed in North American through late summer and then will embark on a fall headlining tour Oct. 31 in a city to be announced. Kennedy will serve as the special guest for the trek, which wraps in early December. Click here for details.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
