Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Extreme
Extreme tabs Extreme discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Extreme guitar tabs

CD reviews

Extreme

Extreme - Extreme Audio CD

A fair review of the Extreme "Extreme" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Extreme reviews here, or go back to the Extreme tabs.

Band: Extreme
Title: Extreme
Rating:

Release Date: 1994-06-14
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Little Girls 2: Wind Me Up 3: Kid Ego 4: Watching Waiting 5: Mutha (Don't Wanna Go to School Today) 6: Teacher's Pet 7: Big Boys Don't Cry 8: Smoke Signals 9: Flesh 'N' Blood 10: Rock a Bye Bye 11: Play With Me

Nuno Uno
I am sorry, Gery Cherone is probanly an immensely nice guy, he has good energy, I've seen him three times, twice with Extreme and once with Van Halen, the dude is putting fourth incredible effort performance wise but for some reason he doesn't do his lead guitarists proper credit. That's what this CD should really be called. He has had two of the best in Nuno Bettencourt and Eddie Van Halen, and yet after the show he comes across as expendable. Somewhere after the Pornogrffiti album his lyrics lost edge and while his energy during a concert can get hm through that with the help of a guitar god or two if you are not at a concert and listening to any CD he has done since then, he falls short. So lets go back in time to this debute CD.

Now guitar aces became almost cliche in the 80's, everyone wanted to be the next Eddie and recreate the mark he made with Van Halens debut album. And some INCREDIBLE guitarists came out of the 80's as the result of these "hair bands" like Lynch, Bratta (please pck up a guitar again some day), Lee, Slash,just to name a few. But what Eddie did with Van Halen's debut album is,well is there a better word for it than legendary? Please let me know because that one doesn't seem good enough. I don't know if anyone SHOULD have known at the time but they definitly DIDN'T realize Eddie was king. So had we not been so overwhelmed with all these new lead guitarists (and I am not complaining, I love good guitar play and skill, on a Les PAul, acoustic, banjo, whatever) then the emergence of one Nuno Bettencourt with an obscure band called Extreme would not go as unoticed as it did.

In my opinion if I had to pay to literally listen to one guy play guitar all day, 24 hrs, sun up to sundown there are 5 guys I'd do that for. 1. Eddie, 2. Mark Knoppler 3. Billy Gibbons 4. Eric Johnson 5. Nuno Bettencourt. I am not saying these are the best ever, well Eddie I am, I'll fight you for that one, but the others are purely personal tastes. Nuno was the best to come out of a time when everyone was looking for the next Eddie and a LOT of great talent sufaced willing to try to be that. Granted if Randy Rhodes isn't taken from us so soon, Nuno may have only been the 2nd best, but not by far.

Get this album! Get in on the emergence of one of the most incredible guitar talents you will ever hear. Then help me figure out what the #$%@ happened! This debut Cd then the Pornografitti album and all of a sudden its like he turns down the volume. The talent is still there and then some, you can tell on Extreme's following albums but it is only in glimpses. He does a little more in his solo albums but it is like he is trying to shun the guitar god image. KNOCK IT OFF NUNO!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to hear Cherone's soft sensitiveand politically clever vocals, I want YOU to play the guitar like you got a pair plus a few spare sets hanging around down their. That's what you used to do. DO IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Amazing work on the strings, a real guitar hero
Extreme una gran banda!. Una verdadera obra maestra del glam metal, aunque diferente en su estilo, una clara muestra del talento de Nuno en su trabajo con las cuerdas, un cl�sico que cualquier fan de los 80 deber�a tener.

Purely scientifically, studied her anatomy...
The pride of Boston, MA, Extreme seemed superficially to be a typical product of the hair metal age and to be fair they did exhibit many of the cookie cutter traits of their contemporaries. Man is this record a lot of fun. They were however not afraid to explore prog or funk which set them apart from much of the rest of the pack. They showed on their debut how much of a supremely talented foursome they were. Nuno Bettancourt rang notice that he was a new guitar god and Gary Cherone had area ready pipes and the rhythm section of Badger and Geary completed the band, no slouches here. Much of the subject matter of `Extreme' ran to the joyous celebration of childhood and the band showed early on that they tended to write conceptually and this would be more apparent in later releases. Van Halen seemed to be one obvious early influence especially in regards to Nuno's playing. "Mutha" is probably the most Halenesque song with its full throttle guitar intro and the style of the central riff before the chorus. "Kid Ego", "Little Girls", "Wind Me Up" and of course "Teacher's Pet" round out my personal favorites. "Watching Waiting" is a very good power ballad type song and "Play With Me" concluded the LP at breakneck speed. Good to great metal from the late 80's that at least gives one another flavor as opposed to the same old stuff. Extreme would gain much fame and fortune with their next record.

.

More 80's style

I even got laid while playing "Rock a bye bye" a day before joining the military. I think this was a pretty good album.

Cheesy Songs and Anti-Choice Rhetoric
I wanted to like it because Nuno Bentencourt had a few decent guitar riffs scattered throughout, but that wasn't enought to save any of the songs. I got this album at Tower Records the day it was released. The songs were just. . . what's the word I'm looking for? BORING. Boring and cheesy, like the musical equivalent of a chick flick.

And worse I was reading through the liner notes and they had some anti-abortion rhetoric printed in there. Lame music AND they are against women's' rights. Geesh. If I wanted a Stryper album I would have bought one :)

I own thousands of CD's and this is one of a handful I've ever sold back. Extreme wouldn't get anymore of my money. And I recommend you save yours. If you must try this CD, then find a used copy. Better yet, check out vintage releases from Giuffria, Dream Theater (Images and Words) or Van Halen (Van Halen II)!.

You can see a complete list of all Extreme discography, or go back to the Extreme tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.