After a decade and half, we finally have new music from Extreme. Kevin Wilson gives us his review of the Boston rockers’ new single ‘Rise’…
Excuse me while I catch my breath, wipe the tears from my eyes and let the tingling hairs on the back of my neck settle down. It’s been almost 15 years since Extreme released new music. But today they rose again with ‘Rise’. And I can’t get enough of it.
Is it everything I wanted new Extreme to be? Of course not. And it would be silly to expect singer Gary Cherone, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, bassist Pat Badger and drummer Kevin Figueiredo to drill into my brain. And it shouldn’t matter what I want.
What I expected was a hybrid of their 90s sound – and their sounds were definitely not identical from album to album, and I loved that – but what we got was a different kind of 90s vibe: More akin to Stone Temple Pilots’ heavier stuff, and this song is exactly that, one of the heaviest, most muscle-bound tracks in Extreme’s catalogue.
“Musically, it’s aggressive,” says Gary about album opener ‘Rise’. “Lyrically, it’s a cautionary tale on the rise and fall of fame. You get seduced into it. Once you’re on top, they’ll rip you apart and tear you down. That’s the nature of the beast.”
And when you watch the video, Gary gives off a Scott Weiland vibe, with the hair and shades and moves, even though it is all just Gary being Gary in his wonderful Gary way.
Here are some things that gave me chills while listening to ‘Rise’:
The massive riffage that opens the song. It’s loud and in your face from the first note, and it’s all Nuno until K-Fig pounds his way into the picture. Fans and guitar geeks (like me) alike have been craving Nuno, so it was awesome to have him lead off the track.
Hearing Gary Cherone’s voice again. After Nuno and K-Fig have their way with the intro, Gary and Pat join them for the first verse, and hearing Gary’s voice over a new Nuno riff just brings me joy. And he still sounds great at 61!
Hearing Gary and Nuno’s voices together again. There’s something in the chemistry of those voices together, the voices the world fell in love with when ‘More Than Words’ vaulted them to the top of the charts 30-plus years ago. And when they sing together, in soaring harmony “You’re the chosen one”, it’s clear that chemistry has not abandoned them.
Nuno going off script. Bettencourt played a pretty straight, repetitive riff during the first verse. But during the second verse he goes off and throws in some tasty Nuno fills here and there, and suddenly you know for sure this is Extreme.
That soloooooooooooo. How do you appease guitar geeks who have been waiting nearly 15 years for a new Extreme guitar solo? You do exactly what he did here. You slap them in the face with more than a full minute of lightning-fast, string-bending, whammy-bar screaming, face-melting awesomeness that echoes in parts his iconic ‘Play With Me’ and ‘Peacemaker Die’ solos, while still being a ferocious beast of its own.
“When Eddie Van Halen passed, it really hit me,” shares Nuno. “I’m not going to be the one who will take the throne, but I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive. So, you hear a lot of fire on the record.”
I doubt it’s a coincidence that Extreme’s first release in so long, a release that was constantly teased and delayed over the past few years, ends with line “You got what you want” being repeated three times. It’s cocky, but in the best rock n’ roll way. And, yes, I’m happy to say I got what I want.
“With EXTREME, there’s always a lot of passion and a little piss and vinegar,” says Gary. “We’re not in competition with anybody else, but we strive to outdo ourselves. There are some moments on this album where we did. We’ve managed to stay together after all these years. We feel like we have something to prove when we get on stage or in the studio. Because of that, I believe some of these songs are among the best we’ve written.”
“Whatever you think an EXTREME album is after two or even three songs, it’s not,” states Nuno. “That goes for every record we’ve ever done. True EXTREME fans know to ‘expect the unexpected.’ I feel like we need a good old school rock album. ‘Six’ is definitely modern, but you can put on headphones and go on a journey from top-to-bottom. It’s like ‘EXTREME 2.0‘.”
And when the new album ‘Six’ comes out June 9, it’ll definitely be a summer of rock if this first song is any indication.
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