EXTREME Saudades de Rock (2008)
05 November 2008
I admit that I don't have a positive opinion about such reunions as Extreme's. 13 years divide us from their last full length album and at this state I thought it was impossible and even intolerable to put a new sign on the band’s name. But the American rockers succeeded to convince me that it is actually possible to make a stable reunion which not only won’t sully the success from the past but will make proceeds for future ones.
It looks crazy, but it is a fact – Extreme have recorded a killing album, a disc in the traditions of the most cult hard rock from the near past, but with an accent on the modernization of the sound, which in 2008 is right on its place. We can not miss the fact that Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt are older but mature and for our happiness the heaviness of their age did not reflect on their inspiration.
"Saudades de Rock" at the same time sounds youth and unbridled and it show the charm of the creator-in-middle-age, who didn’t lost his desire to perfect himself and the motivation to show a new side of its essence. I can define "Star" as unsuitable choice for beginning of the album. Then you will probably make a wrong impression about the return of the band. From "Comfortably Dumb" until the end of the record everything is getting better and with a smile on your face you will realize that Extreme can not release a bad album, although the big pause they’ve had. The tandem Bettencourt-Cherone here is completed with the new member – the drummer Kevin Figueiredo, which helped with some composition ideas and, who knows, his intervention may be decisive. Generalizing, "Saudades de Rock" is at the same time different and typical for Extreme. I insist to mark the presence of two wonderful ballads – the magical "Ghost" and "Interface". I don’t know if it’s fair or not, but the group has one badge as them - "More Than Words", and, truly, if someone, from now on, identify them with these two new songs – I won’t be angry, they deserve it!
"Saudades de Rock" is a triumphal return. On the wings of an odd time machine Extreme are here again and they are stronger than ever. Really!
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- 1The Emptiness Machine
LINKIN PARK - 2A Fragile Thing
THE CURE - 3The Piper's Call
DAVID GILMOUR - 4Queen of What Might Have Been
EAGLE POST - 5New Waters
ODD CREW
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