The 90s rock band is back with a new album in 2026.
Extreme, best known for the No. 1 hit “More Than Words,” announced Sunday that he is working on his seventh studio album.
“DAY 1 2026 EX7REME,” guitarist Nuno Bettencourt wrote on social media along with photo himself in the recording studio.
The LP will be the band’s first collection of new music since 2023’s “Six.” The album, Extreme’s first since 2008, reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart; it was Extreme’s first album to reach the top 10 since 1992 Blabbermouth.
“I would put our album up against anyone’s album; I feel so confident,” Bettencourt he said of “Six” in 2023. “I think it’s a well-made album. I think the songs are there. I think the musicianship, the chemistry and the guitar playing. But more importantly, what’s really there and what people connect with is the mythology of rock and roll. I think that’s really what’s missing a lot in guitar-driven music, it’s…
“I think when people saw a guitarist who’s in a band with songs and arrangements and videos and everything, it was almost like seeing something that… People say it’s so fresh, but for us it’s like a comeback for us,” he added. “It’s more of a reminder than anything else that you can still be passionate and have a fire and do all those things. And people are letting us know they’re hungry—I think they’re hungry for rock and roll.”
Extreme has not announced a release date or album title, but Bettencourt’s post suggests it will be called “EX7REME.” Previous albums have similarly used numbers in their titles, such as 90’s “Extreme II: Pornograffitti” (the band’s second album), 1992’s “III Sides to Every Story” and “Six”.
Extreme is a hard rock band that formed in 1985 with Bettencourt, singer Gary Cherone and bassist Pat Badger still in the lineup. The group exploded in popularity in the early 1990s with the album ‘Pornograffiti’, which featured a mixture of heavy metal and funk in songs such as ‘Decadence Dance’, ‘Get the Funk Out’ and the No. 4 hit ‘Hole Hearted’ and the sensational ballad ‘More Than Words’. Other popular songs include “Play with Me,” “Rest in Peace,” “Rise” and the holiday original “Christmas Time Again.”
After the group broke up in 1996, Cherone replaced Sammy Hagar as Van Halen’s lead singer, and Bettencourt released several albums as a solo artist and with groups such as Mourning Widows and Satellite Party (with Perry Farrell). Extreme reunited briefly in 2004 and 2006 before making a full comeback in 2007, when original drummer Paul Geary was replaced by drummer Kevin Figueiredo.
Extreme have stayed busy in recent years, touring in support of “Six” and appearing at Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert with Black Sabbath. Blabbermouth reports that Bettencourt also served as musical director and guitarist for the 2025 MTV VMAs, where he paid tribute to Osbourne alongside Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Yungblud and Aerosmith.
Extreme tour dates in 2026 include two concerts in Upstate New York with Motley Crue on July 18 at the Darien Lake Amphitheater and July 29 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster, Living seats, StubHub and Seat Geek.
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