VHI
Fair Warning
VHII
That's pretty much it for me in terms of "this is the tone". Next would be in no particular order...
WACF
1984
5150
Diver Down
Next for me would be FUCKnowledge. Thought that was a good transition tonally. Where as Balance, yeah I just never have understood all the hype that gets.
I was never enamored with Balance, or VHIII. Oddly enough I enjoy DKOT but not tonally, it's just full on saturation. Then again that album to me it's like it's not really a part of the official catalog. I personally kinda look on that album as something where bands release demo's etc... And in essence that's what they are. It certainly was the worst production they ever released.
As an aside, Me Wise Magic/Hits era was the "the time" for the return of Roth, that would have exploded at that time. Roth's voice wasn't totally shot and "everyone" was ready for it including the grunge era bands and people. Ed and Al missed a great opportunity there and in reality VH never recovered in terms of being a "relative" band. Yeah they could tour with Hagar and later Roth but creatively there were pretty much done. Just a huge miss by those guys.