July 21, 1992 - The Extremist

Two weeks after my last release and nearly three years since his last album "Flying In A Blue Dream", Joe Satriani released his fourth album "The Extremist" on July 21, 1992. This is still Satriani's highest charting release of his career and it spawned three successful singles. On all his previous albums Joe was helped out by drummer Jeff Campitelli but on this album he has several different people contributing lots of different stuff with Campitelli only doing cymbals on one track. Most of the bass and drums are done by brothers Matt and Gregg Bissonette respectively with Joe doing some bass and keyboards (as well as all the guitars of course) and several other musicians helping out with small bass, keyboard and percussion parts. Let's check out the latest from Joe Satriani (and friends)!

The album begins with "Friends" and the Bissonette brothers lay down the rhythm section with some loud drums by Gregg before Joe comes in with some slow and very epic-sounding lead guitar. After one "verse" (there's no lyrics but it still feels like a long verse) Satriani starts to solo 9vertop of everything and as you'd expect he plays some pretty cool stuff. He's not full-on shredding, but he's matching the mood perfectly and still delivering some cool guitar. This continues right until the end of this slightly tame opener and up next is the title track "The Extremist" which is a bit more upbeat. Joe kicks right into it with a pretty sweet rhythm guitar riff and even though he plays some louder, more epic-sounding lead guitar overtop I think the rhythm guitar part is even cooler! After a long "verse" it's solo time, but Joe is playing the harmonica! It sounds pretty cool for a harmonica solo, though I find it doesn't fit the hard-rock style that well. That's followed by a proper guitar solo and Satriani shows off on this one with some crazy fast parts that sound pretty sweet. He gets lots of time to show off his skills and after the long solo they resume the main riff and then close out the song with a final harmonica solo. Track 3 is called "War" and as Joe does so well, he establishes a cool rhythm guitar riff and rhythm section before blending in some slower, louder lead guitar that fits in perfectly to form a catchy main riff. After a couple minutes of jamming to the main riff Joe switches to a new rhythm guitar riff that sounds pretty cool and this becomes the backdrop for the guitar solo. Joe delivers a fantastic solo that at times sounds blinding fast and just plain amazing! He can really play the guitar and he does a beautiful slow breakdown at the end of the solo that ends up perfectly segueing us back to the main riff. A final "verse" is jammed out but then the song continues for another minute and a half and not a whole lot is going on in this closing part as things seem to just be drifting along and going on for way too long. An odd way to end what was otherwise a pretty sweet song. The next song is called "Cryin'" and Joe plays some slow and sappy lead guitar overtop of some sappy-sounding keyboards. After a quieter long first "verse" drums join the mix for the next "verse" and Joe's guitar becomes a little faster, but things still sound pretty sappy. Things really slow down and it seems like we're setting up for solo time, but there is no flashy solo and Joe unexcitedly just starts up another long, sappy verse that takes us to the end of this long and rather uneventful song. Track 5 is even longer and it's the second song of Joe's named after his wife, titled "Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness". Satriani leads the way with a light acoustic guitar riff that is simple by his lofty standards but I still think it sounds solid and it has a nice upbeat rhythm to it. After almost a couple minutes of this light main riff a loud drum beat joins the mix and Joe begins to solo on electric guitar overtop of the light music. He does a pretty sweet job, playing along to the mood perfectly and also squeezing in some snippets of great shredding guitar. Joe returns to the light main riff for another long "verse" and then it's another "solo", although this one is much more tame than the first one. The solo eventually fades to a close and the song ends on a bit of a weird note with some keyboards that almost sound like bagpipes! Very out of place. Up next is "Summer Song" which turned out to be a succesful single and after a couple slow burners this song, while still not terribly fast, feels way faster. Joe and the Bissonette's lay down a nice classic rock sounding main rhythm riff and it doesn't take Satriani long to play some epic lead guitar overtop in this toe-tapper. Joe ramps things up a bit in the next part and this sets the stage for solo #1, where Satriani goes absolutely nuts and delivers some pretty awesome guitar. It rolls right back into the main riff as they hit reset and go through the building process again, culminating in solo #2, which wasn't nearly as good as #1, but it was still solid. After the solo the song quickly fades out, but I'm glad they did it this way instead of cutting off the solo. Track 7 is the shortest at about 80 seconds and it's called "Tears In The Rain". Joe plays by himself and he plays a light but pretty epic sounding guitar riff that is slower for the first half, and speeds up a bit in the second half. Joe loves these short little tracks and this one is another cool little interlude. The next song is called "Why" and Joe lays down a catchy main riff, including some funky-sounding bass before adding his usual loud lead guitar overtop. Things have a nice rockin' beat and Joe continues to show that he's great at layering different riffs into cool songs. In the middle we get a typical Satriani solo that is pretty sweet with moments of brilliance, but then it's right back to the main riff and it does tend to grow a little old as they just jam it out. The final fadeout of the song is done pretty well but this was another song that was definitely solid, but for the most part it wasn't Joe's best work. Track 9 is "Motorcycle Driver" and Joe seems to be really into motorcycles as last album's "Ride" was also about them. It has a typical rockin' Satriani beat as Joe plays a simple but catchy rhythm guitar riff and then adds some epic lead guitar overtop (shocker, I know). This main riff goes on for a while and it's pretty repetitive and fairly full for Satriani. Joe spices things up with a predictably cool solo and then it's right back to the cruisin' main riff. Eventually we reach solo #2 and Joe once again delivers some pretty sweet guitar that fits the mood of the song perfectly and takes us right to the finish. The final song on the album is "New Blues" and it's the longest as well at just under seven minutes. We hear a voice count us in and then session drummer Simon Phillips cues up a slow and simple drum beat and Joe starts to play a nice blues-y guitar riff. This lighter riff sounds cool, but then Joe starts to play some cool lead guitar and things sound pretty epic, especially once some epic droning synths join the mix. Once it's solo time Joe really shows off with some super fast guitar that sounds awesome and the fact that this fits nicely with the blues-y background shows that Joe really does have some new blues! They quiet things down and return to the main riff and we hear some synthesized trumpet that would sound alright if it were just a regular trumpet, but synthesized trumpet? That's an odd choice and it sounds a little corny to me, so it kind of spoils this soft fading ending.

That is the end of "The Extremist" and I thought it was a solid Joe Satriani album, but not really an amazing one. It had several great guitar solos, as has every album by Joe, but I found this album as a whole to be a little on the weaker side: not bad by any means, but not up to Satriani's wonderful best. I liked his debut "Not Of This Earth" more so for now this newest album will take the new bottom rung. I'm sure Joe Satriani can spice it up again though and I look forward to hearing his next album!