You’ve got to hand it to Sammy. While often dissed as a sad replacement in Van Halen, he carried VH through some of their finest musical moments, gave them a whole new strength in the vocal and songwriting department, kept them filling arenas and stadiums, and helped them to foster an entire new audience that his prodeccessor could not do after leaving. And when Sammy left (or was fired, depending on who you believe), he clearly took the magic with him. Not only have Van Halen become the saddest rock n roll disgrace ever, but in the material sense, Sammy’s post-VH releases dwarf his pre-VH solo records like Kareem Abdoul Jabbar standing over Warwick Davis.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not the equal of 5150 or OU812, and its not as good as Sammy's last solo record, Marching To Mars, but its still a great album with some amazing rock songs. The lead single, “Mas Tequila”- Sammy’s admitted re-write of Gary Glitter’s “Rock and Roll Part 1”-is as festive and rocking as its intended to be without sounded forced, and “The Revival” is as delightfully anthemic as “I Can’t Drive 55” or “There’s Only 1 Way To Rock.”

Red Voodoo is a more rocking album than Marching To Mars, which was more ballad-heavy, but it does still contain a few socially concious, thought-provoking slow songs. For all the songs Sammy writes about drinking tequila and getting laid, there’s always enough serious subject matter thrown in - something he introduced to Van Halen (especially on Balance). Songs like “Lay Your Hands On Me,” and the religion-themed “Sympathy For The Human” are really good and give the album a neccessary amount of maturity. This is an amazing album. Eddie Van Halen should stand up and take notice.