RISE AND SHINE

NUNO BETTENCOURT ON THE FINER POINTS OF HIS "RISE" GUITAR SOLO - AND THE FIRESTORM IT HAS SPARKED IN GUITAR LAND

- Andy Aledort

Let’s hop right in! “Rise” begins with a very heavy, aggressive riff played in a drop-D tuning. What was the genesis of the song, and how did it come together?

I always go into recording a new album with the mindset that I’ll never release anything that doesn’t mean something to me. Much to the band’s financial detriment, we probably have four albums’ worth of material from over the last 10 years that we’ve never released. When it gets to that point where you really want to share a track with someone special — you call your brother or your buddy and you say, “Can I show you something?” because you’re giddy and proud about it — that’s when you’re ready to show everybody. That’s what happened with this.

What is it about “Rise” that made you feel like it was hitting the mark?

When I think of my biggest heroes, like Edward [Van Halen], Brian May, Jimmy Page and Randy Rhoads, I always had a punky attitude of, “Imagine what it would be like, one day, being like them,” but it was worse than that! My feeling was, “I want to take them down!” Nothing would be better than for them to hear “Rise” and say, “Oh shit, listen to this!” So the barometer for me has always been, if Edward was here, would I have the balls to play this for him? When I feel like that, I know I’m ready to release something.

When the song kicks off with that initial riff, the dryness of the sound is in your face and hits you really hard.