Sammy's second album after his split with Van Halen, 'Red Voodoo' introduces the world to his band, The Waboritas. They don't help this album be any heavier than the last one though. 'Red Voodoo' barely qualifies as hard rock on its heaviest tracks, but does qualify as country-esque, gospel-ish, and John Cougar Mellencamp-ian in places. Yeah, that's right, John-freaking-Cougar Mellencamp. Good heavens! What the hell?! Part of the problem is a rawer production sound that keeps the guitars from being as biting as they could be. But even if that were corrected, we'd have a long way to go before saying this album rocks.
The album starts out in decent fashion though, with a fun drinking anthem, "Mas Tequila," which unfortunately throws a fake live setting into the mix for bad measure. "Lay Your Hands On Me" starts out kind of haunting and then has a cool riff change and increase in heaviness about halfway through, which continues through repeating choruses of "Lay your hands on me..." (go figure) until the end of the song -- it's easily the best thing on here. "High and Dry Again" has its moments like the cool riff change that leads into the solo, and "The Love" is a vintage Sammy Hagar mid-tempo ballad. A decent song, yes, but it's not good enough to raise the rating much. "Right on Right" has a guitar sound that is a portent of things to come on Sammy's next, and much better, album, but they go overkill on the keys and ruin any chance at a great track. From the 0:15 mark through the 0:30 point, "Sympathy For The Human" is really cool. Unfortunately you have to stop it after those 15 seconds or you'll get a load of Sammy philosophizing to lame music.
Earlier I mentioned country and gospel, well they're there in the form of "Don't Fight It (Feel It)." You want Mellencamp? Listen to "Red Voodoo." If you want what sounds like the soundtrack to a lame '80's fantasy movie, listen to the intro of "Returning Of The Wish," which only gets slightly better as it goes. Lots of horns and keys and non-rocking on this album. If you don't mind that stuff then by all means, pick this one up, and put it next to your Hootie collection. If you're looking for good hard rock, get Sammy's next one, 'Ten 13.'

TRACK LIST:
1. Mas Tequila
2. Shag
3. Sympathy For The Human
4. Red Voodoo
5. Lay Your Hand On Me
6. High And Dry Again
7. The Revival
8. Don't Fight It (Feel It)
9. The Love
10 Right On Right
11. Returning Of The Wish

Review by Jon Paine