Saudades De Rock

Extreme is back after 13 years of silence

Extreme was one of the most eccentric, popular and successful rock bands at the end of the 80's – beginning of the 90's. Its music included the most varied styles from penetrating glam rock to a soft acoustic, and its most well-known hit was ballad More Than Words, performed with an accompaniment of solely two acoustic guitars. Yet the band’s destiny turned out to be not that cloudless as one could guess in its best years. The fourth album, 1995's Waiting for the Punchline, did not justify the hopes the guys had had about it and the collective broke up soon although the members retained friendly relations. At the beginning of the new millennium they would gather together several times to perform with short tours and finally last year the front men Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt announced that Extreme was working on a new material. To the fans' indescribable excitement this summer, 13 years after the release of the last work a new album Saudades De Rock (approximately translated from Portuguese as Nostalgia for Rock) sees the light of the day and takes us back to those times when Extreme's most successful album Pornograffitti was released.

Vocal harmonies and splendid guitar solos on Saudades De Rock

Extreme has been always famous for its vocal harmonies, splendid guitar solos and a drummer's expressive work, and all that is present in excess on Saudades De Rock. The record takes off with a philosophic song Star warning us that one should not always be glad when the dreams come true, whereas composition Comfortably Dumb, classic rock in its best variant, pleases with the resemblance with Led Zeppelin both in the respect of vocals and the instruments sounding. An excellent rhythm of Learn To Love and amazing vocals really deserve a praise and when the guitar solo joins the musicians it earns the song some more extra points, and almost a cowboy number Take Us Alive is remarkable for the drummer's splendid work. Rather heavy tracks Run, King Of The Ladies and Slide can boast with those very vocal harmonies that the audience loves Extreme so much for, but it would not be this band's album if there were no marvelous rock ballads on it. Melodious Last Hour, mystic Ghost, desperate Interface and wonderfully beautiful Peace (Saudade), almost the title composition, serve the best way to confirm that Extreme’s music acknowledges no borders and create an amazing contrast between the tough tracks and the lyrical ballads filled with feelings each of them bearing a special message in it. The album closes with yet another heavy and impetuous song Americocaine (Demo 1985), leaving the listener in a state of utter delight because of the emotions is full of.

Joined efforts still bear its fruit

It is quite possible that many will consider Saudades De Rock as an album from the last century and think that with all its merits it is a representative of music that today does not interest so many people. Yet one should not be too fast making conclusions. First, classic never gets old and one can hardly argue that. Second, Extreme is that very band that once called its music funk metal and one can call it not progressive by no means. Therefore the fact that today its music sounds almost like it did twenty years ago should please and add spice to the impression from listening. Gathering together after the long years of solo careers and attempts to create side projects the collective has found that joined efforts still bear its fruit. To Extreme members' own surprise it has had so many new ideas that the whole recorded material of 24 composition became a subject to a strict selection for the album and only 14 most worthy tracks found themselves on the record. Now, even if we do not know whether the musicians are going to record anything else after Saudades De Rock, the present they have already made to their fans is invaluable even as one item only.