Mammoth's Wolfgang Van Halen Names His 3 Most Influential Albums

Mammoth mastermind Wolfgang Van Halen has shared the three most influential albums in his life while appearing on The Garza Podcast. And the journey to getting to those three albums uncovered even more influential records for the musician.

Mammoth's Wolfgang Van Halen had to think about it, but eventually narrowed his list down to three specific albums that have inspired him.

To start off, he shared without hesitation, "Sound Awake from Karnivool for sure." He later doubled down on the 2009 record by the Australian alternative/prog metal band and insisted, "The one I'm absolutely sure of is Sound Awake just because it's one of my favorite records of all time."

"That record is very special to me," he continued. "I don't know if it shows too much in my writing, but it's just a masterpiece."

Karnivool, Sound Awake

He then set up his next pick and revealed, "It's not my favorite record by them, but it is the reason why I wanted to [play all the instruments] and that is the first Foo Fighters record. It's not my favorite. There are some great songs on there, but I would pick like Wasting Light is my favorite Foo Fighters album ... it's really fun how messy that album is."

Van Halen then told Garza he had spoken to Dave Grohl about being inspired by him, but it was more of a humorous moment. "When he called me to do the Taylor Hawkins tribute, he was super nice. He was like, 'I listened to your stuff. It's cool. You're doing everything?' And I just said, 'I'm ripping you off,' and he laughed."

Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters

And eventually, after cycling through some other options, Wolfgang settled on Nine Inch Nails' With Teeth as his third album.

Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth

What Else Did Wolfgang Van Halen Consider?

"Aenima from Tool is a really big record for me," shared Wolfgang at one point. "You could say [Blink-182's] Enema of the State cause that's where I started my drum journey I guess."

Elsewhere in the interview, he reflected on Enema of the State being such a big record for him in learning drums. "Travis [Barker] is just a fantastic drummer," Van Halen enthused. "I learned a lot from his playing. He's awesome. What I love about him is that he plays parts. He just adds just a little bit of spice into everything."

"I can't say a Van Halen record because it's just kind of inherent. It's just a part of where I came from," he continued. "Maybe a Nine Inch Nails record would be in there." He first mentioned The Fragile, but eventually settled on With Teeth.