Rise

Extreme released a new single/video on March 1st, and apparently the guitar solo by Nuno Bettencourt made quite a stir among guitar players and musicians generally. The song as a whole isn't bad either.

If you're old enough, you might remember Extreme's first big single "More Than Words" from way back in 1991. That song was mostly a ballad. Today's song is most definitely not a ballad. Nuno Bettencourt first showed his chops in "Get The Funk Out" from that same album, their second album, Pornograffitti. The album came on in 1990, but the singles didn't catch on until the next year. But let's listen to a modern song.

This song is "Rise" by Extreme. It was just released on March 1st. It is in support of an upcoming album release. Their album Six is due out June 9th. The solo everyone is worked up about starts at about 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

There is a Rick Beato video about this solo, and about Extreme and Nuno Bettencourt in particular, which was released on the 16th. Rick compared Nuno Bettencourt to Eddie Van Halen. Rick Beato's entire video is probably most of interest to people who want to learn how to play the song, but the first portion of the video is just Rick geeking out over the song, and the solo, with some history of Extreme for anyone who wasn't paying attention to music in 1990 or '91.

"Get the Funk Out" is at this link, and you can find "More Than Words" at this link. In case you need your memory refreshed. The second is a nice ballad, but I never liked the first.