Extreme

Saudades is the Boston arena-metal mainstays' first album since 1995, when singer Gary Cherone split to sing with Van Halen, and fifth overall. With Cherone and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt thankfully reunited, the record lives up to its Portuguese title, which translates to "Nostalgic yearning for rock." Extreme's biggest hits were slow-dance ballads back in the day, but with country-ish tunes ("Take Us Alive"), a major throwback to big influence Boston ("Star") and the thud of "Comfortably Dumb," they are more interested in cutting a brand new, loud loud loud identity for themselves.