Fifteen years after their last album Saudades de Rock was released, Extreme will release their latest opus, Six, on 9 June via earMusic. The multi-platinum hard rockers Gary Cherone (vocals), Nuno Bettencourt (guitar), Pat Badger (bass), and Kevin Figueiredo (drums) lead the charge with the first single and video, Rise.
“Musically, it’s aggressive,” Gary Cherone says of Rise. “Lyrically, it’s a cautionary tale on the rise and fall of fame. You get seduced into it. Once you’re on top, they’ll rip you apart and tear you down. That’s the nature of the beast.”
Rise marks a revolutionary return for the Boston quartet. Led by Bettencourt’s driving riff, Cerone sounds inspired while Badger and Figueiredo pummel the rhythm into your ears.
But it’s Nuno’s solo that is the icing on the cake. Inspired by the life of Eddie Van Halen, Nuno’s solo is a serious piece of fret-burning, which you can imagine EVH being more than appreciative of and will be something of a consistent theme through the album’s twelve tracks.
“When Eddie Van Halen passed, it really hit me,” Nuno said. “I’m not going to be the one who will take the throne, but I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive. So, you hear a lot of fire on the record.”
Bettencourt has been driving the project, including directing the video, which was filmed in Los Angeles. The band also encamped in his LA home studio to record Six, with Nuno also producing.
“With Extreme, there’s always a lot of passion and a little piss and vinegar,” Gary says. “We’re not in competition with anybody else, but we strive to outdo ourselves. There are some moments on this album where we did. We’ve managed to stay together after all these years. We feel like we have something to prove when we get on stage or in the studio. Because of that, I believe some of these songs are among the best we’ve written.”
“Whatever you think an Extreme album is after two or even three songs, it’s not,” Nuno said. “That goes for every record we’ve ever done. True Extreme fans know to ‘expect the unexpected.’ I feel like we need a good old-school rock album. Six is definitely modern, but you can put on headphones and go on a journey from top-to-bottom. It’s like Extreme 2.0.”
Six can be pre-ordered at https://officialextreme.lnk.to/SIXP.