Fifteen years in the making,
Extreme's sixth studio album (the aptly named
Six) is the long-gestating follow-up to 2008's workmanlike
Saudades de Rock, which marked the studio debut of new drummer
Kevin Figueiredo. Featuring the same crew (
Gary Cherone,
Nuno Bettencourt,
Pat Badger, and
Figueiredo), the 12-song set is as polished, energetic, and inventive as one would expect from musicians of this caliber, spilling over with funk-tinged workouts ("Rise"), hard rock bangers ("Banshee"), and smartly constructed acoustic ballads ("Hurricane") that echo the band's halcyon days. ~ James Christopher Monger