10 Greatest Rock Guitar Solos Of The 90s
5. November Rain - Guns N Roses
If there's one word that would describe the Use Your Illusion era of Guns N Roses, it would be epic. Throughout their mammoth double album experience, the band saw some of the most unusual songs of their career being made, along with a tour that may be one of the most extra tours in music history, leaving most of the band in shambles by the end of it. It all started with the epic November Rain, and an epic song needs an epic solo to string it all together.
Going on for nearly 9 minutes, you can pick any one of Slash's guitar breaks from this song as something special, having just the right amount of melodic interplay with the rest of the instruments while never getting in the way of Axl's poignant lyrics of heartache. Once you've laid the groundwork for everything though, you really have to pay attention to that intro, with one of the greatest moments in hair metal history.
As soon as the music starts turning a corner to something a lot more heavy with the piano break, you can practically hear Slash's guitar scream in pain, as he moves further and further down the scales and making us feel like we're being pulled to the bottom of Hell at the exact same time. Though hair metal as a whole was breathing it's dying breath, this is the solo that put a firm exclamation point on the genre's final days.