Nuno Bettencourt speaks fast when he is excited and right now he is speaking pretty fast. Everything is happening fast. After 15 long years, Boston rock institution Extreme has announced a new album, Six, and lead single Rise is blowing minds of players the world over with one of the most ridiculously entertaining guitar solos in recent memory.
It is the pop-cultural electric guitar moment of the year. Hands down. It’s the solo every aspiring shredder wants to play, the coruscating highlight of a track pitched in a drop-D hard-rock groove. The YouTubers have broken it down, Rick Beato has offered us his considerable insights, and yet its animal magic still seems elusive, a sleight of hand we’re all missing.
