I seriously didn't give a shit about a new Extreme album. I mean, their last album Waiting for the Punchline was their worst, and the band fell apart with Nuno doing a bunch of less than satisfactory projects including a short stint with a modern day disco pop group. Dramagods was his most recent band, and when this inevitable reunion was put together, Nuno brought along the drummer and a bunch of their songs to the table. I still expected nothing but mediocrity, especially considering Gary Cherone had lost his form, with his incredibly fuck all Tribe of Judah and his odd appearance butchering Extreme classics with Nuno (like on the Guitar Wars show).

I don't remember what made me check out Saudades De Rock eventually - may be a conveniently placed internet download link? May be some fanboy telling me this one really grows on you? Bottomline is, I soon found myself digging the shit out of this rekkid. These guys have stripped all the pomp they used to have, to a more basic and ass kicking 70s heavy rock approach. Terrific Bonzo school drumming, and Pat Badger's phenomenal groovy bass playing not only locks with the bass drum, but is also provided with a lot more headroom, since the guitar layers are cut down to the bare minimum.

This album is all about the variety so we're going to go through this song by song. The opener Star reeks of Queen with its lush Tie Your Mother Down vibe and with a suitably ripping solo. The funky and asskicking Comfortably Dumb follows, with some sweet pentatonic showoff and then the killer chuggy heavy section towards the end. Gary's performance assures us that while he's not the best out there, he's still the best for this band. The next song Learn to Love mixes the old school funk rock with an epic chorus and some thick slide guitar fills from Nuno. There's this raw drum-bass breakdown halfway through and the solo just oozes sex. It's by now clear that Nuno is content with playing what the song needs and not to endlessly show off what he's capable of. Works for me, really.

Up next, Take Us Alive reminds one of some jumpy chicken-pickin' country fare that Led Zep would've done if they had Zakk Wylde in the band. The most underwhelming solo of the album, but the song works otherwise. Run begins like Red-era Crimso, but this is all Extreme from that point onwards, funky verse and catchy chorus with massive backing vocals, and a killer fast picked ascending run followed by harmonised section from Nuno. And watch out for the amazing outro too.

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