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Paper Dolls      "A Very Catchy Song" Saccian
I don't know much about Ballyhoo! and had trouble finding information on them. From listening to their other tunes their music appears to be a mix of Reggae and a little Pop with some Rock influences. One of their other available tunes 'Cali Girl' is more Reggae-like while 'Paper Dolls' is more of a Pop Rock style. As a side note, I found a song called 'The Struggle' by them which would be a good song choice for this game I think.

Paper Dolls opens with a simple power chord riff which reminds me of another popular song from about 10 years ago however for the life of me I can't pick out what that song is. It continues this riff until the lyrics are introduced and the song adopts more of a Reggae feel. I like how the guitar and bass play off each other in this one. I guess this is more a result of the Reggae genre where the bass handles more of the melody.

The chorus is very catchy and the guitar part just repeats through the same chord progression introduced at the beginning of the song. The song is fairly simple and follows a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus type structure. The bridge is full of more chord changes like the chorus.

I really enjoy the song itself and am surprised it is does not have mainstream popularity as it sounds similar to many other popular tunes. I feel that this song is a hidden gem that the average DLC purchaser would probably enjoy. It's also nice to have more Reggae influenced music in Rock Band. If you like music from Bedouin Soundclash I would highly recommend you check out this band.

In the end, while the chart is not terrible exciting, I find this song a pleasure to play along to so it's guitar rating gets a little boost.
09.17.11 5:55pm 0 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
White Knuckles - The Big Robot Remix      "Almost Red Knuckles but not quite." Saccian
Interestingly, OK GO had a contest where fans of the original White Knuckles song had the opportunity to create a remix of this song. The winner of this contest, The Big Robot, won the opportunity to have their version authored by authoring group 'The Authority' and have it available on the RBN. I had no idea this contest existed and find it quite cool that it came to Rock Band. Actually I believe that was the main purpose of the contest and am not sure how commercially available this version is otherwise.

I have to say that I think The Big Robot did an excellent job as I actually prefer the remix version over the original. It's more funky and has more of an electronic feel. The guitar track sounds like it is actually played from a keyboard using a sound effect similar to that of a guitar. To be honest, if the vocals were different I would swear that this song was made by Daft Punk as there are many similarities to some of their stuff.

The beginning part of the chart has a few quick short riffs however I find two of them extremely awkward to play and even on my third playthrough I had trouble nailing them all. I've yet to FC this song because of those dumb things. The chorus has a few chords and isn't anything overly exicting and finishes with an odd sounding riff which almost sounds out of tune.

The songs goes through a second verse and chorus again and then you are introduced to the first guitar solo. There are two solos to the song and they may even be identical and I find them very fun to play along to. They consists of a few different sweeping patterns with a good mix of hammer-ons and pull-offs which I find are good for warming up the fingers for those harder songs. Sadly I'm getting old and can't jump into those impossible tiered songs with out a little warm up but find that this song does an excellent job for that.

I have mixed feelings about the song as the begging portion of the chart makes me want to smash things as I suck at it but the guitar solos are a blast to play. The song itself is cool to listen to so for that alone I would recommend it to anyone. The guitar solos are just a nice touch.
09.17.11 5:14pm 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Find Beauty      "Easy on the guitar but nice on the ears." Saccian
I decided to review this song in an attempt to help promote this band a little although I could potentially be doing the song a disservice with my low rating for the guitar part.

'Find Beauty' is written by Rose of Jericho who has been awarded RBN Artist of the Month by HMX for the month of September 2011. This song is probably my favorite to listen to by them out of those that are available for the PS3 although it is by far the simplest as far as the Guitar charts are concerned. One thing I do really like about this band as that they are doing their own authoring for their songs on the RBN. I think that is fantastic.

I find this song to be very soothing and the singer's voice reminds me a lot of Sarah McLachlan. I will admit that I own her 'Surfacing' album as I really like her voice. While I consider myself more of a metalhead, I can appreciate some things outside of the genre and female singers with nice voices often do the trick for me. Sorry Britney, you are not included in that group.

This song is very slow paced and the first three and a half minutes just consist of sustain notes. After this it picks up a little with an arrangement of simple power chords. The song really only consists of these two main sections. I didn't realize it when playing it but this song is over six minutes long.

From a plastic guitarist perspective, the chart alone will likely make you bored and I wouldn't recommend this song to anyone who is using that as their deciding factor on whether or not to purchase this song. I would however recommend this to anyone looking for a nice soothing song to play along to. I am sure a Pro-Keys player or Vocalist would get the most out of this song as both parts seem interesting.
09.17.11 4:41pm 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Sick, Sick, Sick      "Not the Stone Age type." Saccian
I don't know anything about Bayside but they apparently have out 5 full length albums with Sick, Sick, Sick coming from their most recent one. This song felt to me like Rise Against meets Anberlin. The guitars feel like they would fit perfectly as a Rise Against song and the singer sounds similar to the guy from Anberlin.

The song opens up with some chord strumming and moves into a sustain bit which carries the melody. Once the lyrics start you get a single note alt-strumming part but it moves around enough to stay interesting. After this you get a small pull-off section which leads right into the songs chorus.

For the chorus, the chart switches back to the lead guitar part and has some fun HOPO sections. After the playing the chorus for the second time around you get a small guitar solo with some slower tempo sweeps patterns. It's not difficult to get the full 100% bonus for this one. After this there are a few quicker alt strum parts with chords and then the song leads into the third chorus. The best parts of this song are the chorus' and the guitar solo.

Overall I don't feel this song quite has enough for me to give it a full 5 stars for the Guitar chart but it is not far off. It's not overly challenging but it's not boring either. I would say that if you like either Rise Against or Anberlin fan then you might dig this song a lot and it is at least worth looking in to.
09.17.11 4:19pm 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Give It Up! Give It Up!      "What is Techcore?" Saccian
Give it Up! Give it Up! is a single from the German band His Statue Falls. According to their Facebook page, His Statue Falls is considered to fall under the 'Techcore' genre which apparently is a mix of Techno, Screamo, and Pop. They boast being one of the pioneers of this new genre and mention that copycats will follow in the near future. I'll guess we'll have to wait and see on that.

Give it Up! Give it Up! does not have any traces of what I would consider Screamo although the Techno and Pop elements are definitely there. I did do a quick listen of some of their other tunes and screamed vocals were present with those.

The guitar for this song does have a thick distortion sound and some of their music features breakdowns so I guess that is why the Metal genre was chosen for this song although it does not really have a metal feel to it. My best comparison for this song would be a toned down poppy version of Stick Stickly by Attack Attack!.

The majority of the chart for this song is a chord fest. It starts out with a basic power chord riff pattern that repeats through the first verse and moves into a steady eighth note pattern. The chorus is also just a series of strummed chords. The only part that is really different is at the end where there is a little techno beat although again, it's just a pattern moving through a few different power chords.

Despite the simplicity of the chart I found it fun to play. I think the guitar and piano chords play off each other well. The techno part was fairly upbeat and equally fun to play along to.

If you like techno or dance music with heavier guitar riffs then you may like this one a lot. Personally I enjoy most musical styles that fall under the Electronica and Heavy Metal umbrellas and found that I enjoyed this tune. If you are pure metal head who prefers challenging charts, you will likely not get what you are looking for with this one.
09.01.11 10:57pm 1 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
I Will Possess Your Heart      "I am unpossessed." Saccian
Well there are already a few guitar reviews for this song but I wanted to tune in on this one anyway. Even though I had it in my library, I haven't gotten around to playing it until it was suggested to me from a poster in the Rockband.com forums. I wasn't familiar with the song and was surprised to see it was nominated for a Grammy in 2009.

I am going to start off by saying that I did not particularly enjoy the guitar chart for this song. It felt very awkward right from the start. There was an overuse of Green-Orange chords and some of the regular chord changes just felt like they were too much, or at least more difficult than they needed to be.

I also didn't like how the rhythm for the guitar part seemed to change so much. It would change from eigth notes to what felt like dotted eigths and then dotted sixteenths. I could be wrong on the notation but it just felt so weird. I may just be a poor sport as I missed a few notes on my sight read though.

I did think the song was kinda cool although it is a little too slow paced for my personal tastes. I didn't particularly like how the whole thing is essentially one long verse with a small bridge hidden away in there. The lack of change did make me start to lose interest halfway through and the Rock Band version is a shortened one.

Overall, the song is pretty slow as is the guitar chart. It isn't terribly difficult but a few awkward chord and rhythm changes can break your Full Combo. I feel bad giving the song a rating of 2 but I definitely feel it is below average. Unless you enjoy the song you probably won't get any excitement with the guitar part.
08.21.11 11:21pm 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Pressure Cooker      "A trip down memory lane." Saccian
From the moment I heard the preview to this song I wanted to hurry up and download it so I could play it. I'm a big nerd and have always been a huge fan of old 8-bit Nintendo style music and still listen to old OST files from back in the day. I believe the instruments used in this song are pretty much on par with what the Nintendo had available although the drum track is much better. This song along with others from this musician are tunes from the video game "VVVVVV" which looks somewhat addicting although rather difficult at the same time.

Like most old school Nintendo tunes, this song's melody is driven by three separate pulse wave style instruments. I think the guitar track might actually be a triangle wave style instrument but I don't know for sure. Throughout the song, the guitar, bass, and keys part take turns handling the lead part of the melody.

The beginning of this song sounds like it would fit perfectly as background music for one of the "Destiny of an Emperor" NES games. It has an asian influence in there which brings back memories of when I used to play it. The guitar chart for this section is full of HOPO's that go back and forth through the note lanes and it switches up quite a bit.

After this there is a long section of ascending triplets that require some stretching with your pinky finger to hit unless you choose to slide your index finger from green to red. I found that sliding was more accurate for me although the constant rubbing was making my finger sore. This section felt like it would have fit perfectly as music for a Megaman series stage. Pew pew pew pew.

After this section it slows down for the guitar part and the bass line leads the melody for a bit. This part also contains the guitar solo which feels like it would fit perfectly into a cut scene for the original Ninja Gaiden series. This guitar solo is fairly simple although the end contains a quick series of HOPO notes. There area few simple chordy parts to end it off where the keys and bass part handle the bulk of the melody.

Overall I found the chart to be quite fun to play. It wasn't overly difficult compared to some Metal songs but it's definitely not a simple one and has a large amount of HOPO notes which is what I am usually looking for in a song. I found the regular Keys charts to be quite fun for the plastic guitar as well and the bass line is pretty cool too although the end feels a little repetive. I do find it funny there is a vocal part as I think the whole song is tapping with one talky word(letter) at the very end.

This song itself probably isn't for everyone. If you find playing along to video game music boring or annoying to listen to, you may not enjoy this. As for me, I am a video game music nerd so I'm giving this song a full 5 stars. It felt very nostaligic to me due to the Nintendo music feel as I was kid back when Nintendo was popular. If you don't mind the tune, I would definitely recommend to anyone to pick this up.
08.05.11 12:54am 0 Replies | Reply +5 Relevance
Feast or Famine      "Good pick up for the plastic guitarist." Saccian
I chose to review this song as it is currently one of the least owned songs in the RBN(at least for the PS3 anyhow) and I think this song has some value for select crowds.

According to the Encycolopaedia Metallum, Within the Ruins is labeled as a Melodic Death Metal band and 'Feast or Famine' is a single from the album 'Invade' which I believe is their second full length album.

Anyhow, this song reminds me a lot of Embedded by Job for a Cowboy in the sense that is not a song that I would ever listen it to outside of the game however it is incredibly fun to play on plastic guitar. The song has a very fast tempo is and full of quick chord changes, fast HOPO riffs and hooks and many other odd bits that are really neat. Parts of the song feel like they would fit perfectly into a video game. There are a few tremolo picking parts but they are short and don't tire your arm out like other songs I have recently come across. The breakdown section might cause a combo break due to the odd rhythm changes but it isn't very difficult. I think the best parts of this song are the quick HOPO riffs that seems to come in at random places.

While I do enjoy most forms of metal, I'm not a death metal fan however I didn't find this song to be grating on my ears like some others are. It may be because the guitar chart is such a blast to play. The bass chart is actually quite entertaining as well and is similar to the guitar part. I don't think Feast or Famine would be a particularly enjoyable song for a vocalist as the whole song is full of screaming and likely charted as only with talkies.

I definitely recommend this song for the guitar players out there. It's probably not a good party song, but it is definitely a blast to play solo player or with some buddies online. The guitar part is definitely a full 5 stars. If you want to see the chart, sandstormsux currently has both the bass and guitar charts combined into one on YouTube and has his own little review as well.
06.21.11 6:42pm 2 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
Action/Adventure      "This is not an RPG." Saccian
I never heard of Memphis May Fire until I saw their song available on the RBN after the PSN came back up from its long outage. I did a quick search and found that this band is labelled as a Post-Hardcore/Metalcore band on Wikipedia. They've also included the genre Southern Rock although I didn't notice any influences of that particular style in this song.

'Action/Adventure' is a single from their second album Between the Lies. The song has a mix of clean and screamed vocals and is fairly catchy. This song also contains various breakdown parts similar to other songs of this style but for the most part it is fairly melodic. I really like the tone of the instruments in this song. The bass drum has a nice thud which seems to stand out more than usual and it compliments the bass parts really well.

The guitar chart for this song is really fun. There is a mix of solo leads and some quick chordy parts throughout the whole song. The intro is upbeat and has plenty of HOPO's and finger changes to keep you entertained. The chorus is a basic chord fest but for the most part guitar chart is always changing and never leaves your bored. There is no guitar solo for this song. I think this is one of the few Nightmared tiered RBN songs that is actually in the right tier.

This song is not incredibly difficult so those only looking for the hardest of songs might not be as interested however I feel that this is challenging enough. I enjoy the song itself and find it fun to play along to so for these reasons I am rating it a 5 out of 5. If you enjoy songs by artists such as The Devil Wears Prada, Attack Attack!, Asking Alexandria, and Underoath, you would probably like this song as well.
06.21.11 5:53pm 0 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
The Hounds of Anubis      "Good Pick up for Guitarists" Saccian
The Hounds of Anubis is the second offering from The Word Alive to come to the Rock Band Network, the first being Battle Royale. Interestingly, this band was originally a side project for the current vocalist of Escape the Fate, formerly from Blessthefall, in which both bands have songs available in Rock Band. He is no longer part of the band however.

As far as the charting goes, the song full of fun HOPO riffs which I always enjoy playing. There are a few quick alt strumming chord sections throughout the song as well but they are pretty simple. The guitar solo has some fun parts as well that go back and forth across the onscreen fret board. The trickiest part is at the end and uses a pattern that I have not seen in any other song so it is a little tricky to get the note sequence down.

I've read that this song was written with the intention of having an Egyptian feel. I am not sure if they quite nailed that but it does have an interesting sound for sure. Maybe I just have a hard time associating Metalcore with Egyptian music. The vocals for the song are mostly screamed for the verses and clean for the chorus. I really find the chorus to be quite catchy and fun to play along to. This song feels more in line with first two Attack Attack! songs available for Rock Band than it is to Battle Royale. At least that is how I feel anyways.

In conclusion, this song is a blast to play on guitar and I enjoy listening to it as well. If you like songs from similar style bands such as Attack Attack! and Asking Alexandria, you should enjoy this one as well. The charting is done well and it offers a decent challenge. If the RBN song difficulty wasn't messed up past Nightmare level, I might actually consider this song a lower level Impossible tiered song. This song has my Seal of Approval.
05.20.11 3:33pm 2 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Fight to Kill      "Fun Metal Song" Saccian
I haven't written a review in quite some time and felt this song would be a good choice to put out there as the RBN always needs more attenion.

I wanted to get some more background info on this band and was surprised to see that they don't even have a Wikipedia page available. Best I can tell from their Facebook and Myspace page is that they currently only have an EP available with 4 songs although they are all fairly catchy and do a good job of showcasing their guitarists talents.

As for 'Fight to Kill', I found it to be a very catchy song even on my first full play-through. It felt like a mix between the 3 Inches of Blood song by Battles and Brotherhood and some of the Black Tide songs with the vocalist having a higher pitched voice and a big focus on the guitar melodies.

The guitar part for this song starts out with a catchy thrash riff which involves some quick alt-strumming. I think the only tricky part with this section is that the second chord for the fast strumming part is charted as a hammer on. It felt more natural for me to strum it although I tended to break combo if I did.

The main chorus is a pretty simple riff that leads into the first guitar solo. While I knew the song had a fast tempo, the guitar solo caught me off guard and I failed out on my first try. Unless you have very quick fingerspeed and can handle Amberian Dawn style sweeps easily, you will likely need Overdrive to get through it. The second half of the solo is the hardest.

After the solo it is a repeat of the first verse and chorus riffs. This is followed by a new riff which has that anthem like feel but is fairly simple to play. Next up is the second guitar solo. The first half is easy to play but then it leads right into more quick sweeping style patterns which have a video game music type feel. There are a few more quick lead guitar riffs as the song finishes off that are fun to play as well.

Overall I really enjoyed the song and the guitar part is a blast play. The guitar solos should give even the seasoned expert player some challenge. If you enjoyed 3 Inches of Blood and/or the Black Tide songs, I would highly recommend picking this one up too. At the very least I would recommend giving the song a listen.
05.14.11 3:33pm 0 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
Tastes Like Kevin Bacon      "More Bugel Please." Saccian
I have had three different users ask me for my opinion on this song so I decided to write up a review on it. I have to give this group props for having one of the most interesting band names that I have ever heard. The song title is interesting as well and matches something TDWP might use.

I've seen this band classified as an Avante-Garde Metal group, in essence they play an experimental type of heavy metal. After listening to the song the first time, I couldn't really think of any song to compare this too but the experimental metal label seems to hit the spot.

This song is full of death metal/grindcore style growls but also has some clean vocals by a female singer in the middle of the song(I guess she does the growling too, thanks to Rikoraru for this). There are also some odd instrument sections including a brief harp interlude that is charted and an amusing bugel horn section.

At the time of this review, I would rate this as one of the most difficult RBN songs released to the PS3 to pass on the guitar. The intro to the song contains some very quick triplet pull offs similar to the pulls in the third solo of Caprici Di Diablo which can be extremely tough for someone who doesn't have very good finger speed. After this it moves to a trill section which moves back and forth. While it is not as fast as say the solo for Battle Royal, there is only one overdrive phrase available up to this point so anyone who can't keep up with the quick tempo to this song would likely bite it. I think a fitting title for the first section of this song would be: Flight of the Angry Bumble Bee as it is very quick yet all over the place.

After this section the song changes to a basic alt-strumming patern and then quickly moves to the solo which consists of quick hammer-on triplets at a fairly quick pace similar to a section from Brainpower by Freezepop in Rock Band 1.

A little after the solo the song slows down comes to the part with the female vocalist which is probably the best part of the song for my tastes. The guitar at this point first consists of quick chord strumming and then slows down quite a bit. The female vocalist section ends with a small harp bit followed by the bugel horn part which I found rather funny.

The song then moves toward an agressive thrash metal style rhythm and stays this away pretty much until the end of the song. There is one lead guitar portion where the guitar charting is all over the place similar to parts from Riad N' the Bediouns by Guns and Roses. I think this is where the 'bumble bee' mentioned earlier is drunk heh.

All in all, this song has many different style and tempo changes similar to Stick Stickly by Attack Attack!. I didn't care for it when I first listened to it but do appreciate it more after listening to it a few times. I'm still not sure where I stand on it but you like metal and are OK with it being all over the place, then this might be an OK pick up. I think there are a lot of better choices out there for the guitar though. If you are not familiar with all the other songs I mentioned in this review, I suggest you just check out the guitar chart for this song on YouTube.

I am told the drumming for this song is a lot of fun, but I haven't tried it out myself yet. Overall I am only giving this song a three. While it is challenging, I don't find it particularly fun to play along to.
08.07.10 5:37pm 5 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
A Little Faster      "The song isn't that fast." Saccian
I have always wanted to review this song as I feel it is a hidden gem amongst the songs in the Rock Band Network. Most of the songs that Harmonix has recommended aren't to my tastes but I really enjoy playing this one.

The song itself can be best described as having an upbeat alternative rock style to it. The vocalist of this band really reminds me of the singer, Chris Brown from Trapt. To be honest, this song would fit perfectly on Trapts debut album, so any fans of Trapt would probably like this song. I enjoy playing this song on both vocals and drums as well but this is a guitar review of the song so I won't say anymore on that topic.

The charting for this song is pretty simple on guitar. It is only a moderate rating but I find it entertaining to play. The verses consist mostly of chords and a few simple lead guitar riffs and the chorus is just steady chord strumming with slow changes. There is no guitar solo although there is small bridge after the second chorus that is similar to the intro lead guitar riff. For the average expert level player, there isn't much that should cause any difficulty. There is one part with quick chord strumming but that is about it as far as tricky parts.

At the time of this review, only about 2500 scores have been registered for this song on Keldon's site for all systems. I would encourage anyone who hasn't heard it to at least check it out on YouTube to see what you think. If you are looking for a challenge on guitar, this song won't really give you one but if you like the song itself then I think that this is an excellent pick up.

My rating for this song gets a boost because I have fun while playing it. I think it is a lot of fun for a Moderate Tier song.
08.07.10 11:29am 0 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
Crushed Beyond Dust      "Drunken Pirates?" Saccian
Let's start off by talking about the song itself. I copied the following line from Wikipedia's article on the band Skeletonwitch:

Skeletonwitch's vocals are characteristically in the death metal/black metal vein, with Chance Garnette performing both the low gutteral shouts and growls as well as the higher pitched black metal screams and sickness.

I am not really sure what 'sickness' means as far as a singing style, but when I played along to this song I kept imagining that the singer was some sort of undead pirate. I'm not sure if the album art put weird ideas into my head. I think a skeleton pirate singing a thrash metal song would be cool though. The comment above does a good job of describing what the vocals for this song are like at any rate.

Anyways, the guitar riffs for this song are pretty fast and follow common thrash metal themes. Fast alt-strumming on the green broken up with some power chords. This song starts off with a steady eight note rhythm on the green notes but before the vocals are introduced this pattern alternates between a few different quick picking styles. It goes from an eight note steady pattern to triplet gallops then to five note gallops. I find that this variety makes the song more interesting.

The next part includes some really quick combo breaking alt-strumming sections and then a simpler riff is introduced followed by a little chordy break down. The song speeds up again and has HOPO chord changes which seem a little awkward to me. After this, the song goes back to the beginning guitar riff with the three style changes and then comes to it's crazy outro with very quick chord changes. I find this part very difficult to hit.

I don't really like to say negative things about other peoples hard work, but there are two sections to this song where I really do not like the guitar charting. First involves the awkward HOPO chord changes and the other is the outro. The outro is the worst in my opinion. I think it would have been better if RY <-> YB style rotation was used rather than RY <-> RB style. Once I missed a chord, I found it terribly difficult to get back on track.

Overall, I thought the song was cool for a metal song although some of the charting left me frustrated not mention my terrible sight read. If you like Death Metal or Thrash Metal or just like a challenge on the guitar, then this song is a decent pick up. If you are not interested in either, then you are likely best off passing on this one.
08.07.10 10:52am 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
We Are Not Anonymous      "Awesome Song!" Saccian
I think it only took me about 30 seconds of watching a video of the guitar chart for this song online to realize that I absolutely had to have it.

I've never really listed to Unearth prior to playing this song which is odd being that I currently listen to a lot of Metalcore stuff. Like most metalcore songs, this song has a strong emphasis on melody for the guitars which is a big plus for us plastic guitar players. The vocalist is screaming through the whole song but for those who hate that kind of thing, it's actually not overwhelming and seems to fit the song pretty well.

My favorite part of this song is the sweeps right at the start. The pattern isn't too tricky, but it's quite fast and can be unforgiving if you happen to accidentally miss a note. There are two easy overdrive phrases that come in within the first 15 seconds so even the 'average' expert level player should still be able to get through this part.

Right after the sweeping section there is a slow melody followed by a few small bits of quick strumming parts. After the first verse and chorus a very cool guitar passage comes up. Sadly it's the only time you get to play that part in the whole song.

After this, the song slows down and constists of a steady palm muted riff on the low string represented by a steady green note and a few chords. The solo follows this and kicks off with a long stream of HOPO's and quickly moves to a rapid sweep pattern that is rather tricky. The latter half of the solo has two more sections of HOPO's and then goes right back to the starting sweeping section.

This song has many awesome guitar sections and the solo is amazing as well. It takes me back to Guitar Hero 2 where for some reason I could easily play 'Thunderhorse' by Dethklok ten times in a row and not get bored of it. This is the first song for Rock Band where I feel the same way. As KJHall said before me, this song is a must have for guitarists. It's cheap too! Another bonus for less skillful players is that there are simple overdrive phrases before most of the difficult parts.

PS - If you are on my friends list and see this review. GET THIS SONG!!!
05.28.10 3:24am 0 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
He Sleeps in a Grove      "The Heavy Metal Opera!" Saccian
I have never heard of this band until I saw it on the RBN release list for the PS3. I have to say that I found the mix of heavily distorted guitars and operatic style singing very interesting. It has a very gothic feel to it.

This song has a fast tempo and requires a lot of strumming. If you are one of those 'down strummers' you will probably get a sore thumb pretty fast. The song is almost constant eigth notes all the way through with the exception of the solo and a few chords. The solo has a lot of quick HOPO's and could prove difficult for those who aren't good with this technique. Even the experienced Expert player may find it challenging to ace the solo as there is one very quick measure of HOPO's in the last half of the solo.

When playing along with song, I feel like I am part of a heavy metal opera. I'm not sure how popular this style of music is, but it is new to me and I rather enjoy it. This song is pretty awesome and if you like the heavier stuff, I strongly recommend it. I hope the other two offerings from this band come to the PS3 as well.
05.28.10 3:24am 1 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Burn it Down      "Forearms Burnt Down" Saccian
I was rather pleased when this song was made available for the PS3 as I believe it was the first 'Metal' one that we got. The song itself is pretty cool to listen to as well, it's pretty aggressive and full of angst(which is perfectly fine with me).

The song starts off with a riff consisting entirely of HOPO's. Following this riff, you are hit a fast gallop style section similar to one seen in 'Aesthetics of Hate' by Machine Head. Fast alternate strumming is still one of my weak points and by the end of last galloping section in this song my right forearm is usually burning. I found it rather rewarding if you manage to hit all this notes of this section though.

The best part of this song is the solo. It's fun to play and there is some quick sweeping action in the first half. There are a couple of other fun quick HOPO style passages as well which I generally find enjoyable to play.

If you are a metal fan and don't mind doing some quick alt-strumming, this is a good song to pick up.
05.28.10 3:24am 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
Stick Stickly      "Stick What?" Saccian
This has to be one of the oddest songs released for Rock Band out there(at least for the PS3). It has many odd tempo changes and seems to cover a few different musical genres. It goes from an Emo/Screamo to some sort of Progressive Death Metal and even has some Dance/Techno influences.

I am sure my musical genre choices are incorrect, but you should at least get the idea on how oddly this song is structured. Despite this, I seemed to enjoy this song more and more with each play though.

As for the guitar chart, it quickly leads into a guitar solo jam packed with 32nd notes. While it is not difficult to get through it, anyone trying to FC this song may find this part rather aggravating.

The verse follows a simple strumming pattern over a few notes and then slows down into a heavier riff full of 2 and 3 note chords. After repeating these sections a few times the song then moves to an upbeat dance style rhythm where some synthesizer notes are charted and has a totally different feel. I like the variety this song seems to offer even though there are really only a few different actual guitar riffs.

If you are looking for something different and can handle a vocalist screaming at the oddest of times, then this is a very fun song to play along with.
05.28.10 3:24am 0 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
Distracted      "Somewhat Surprising" Saccian
Before I played this song, I noticed the guitar part had an average rating of 5 stars. I was rather surprised to see this being that it is such a low difficulty song. I am admittedly a little biased at times though as I prefer the harder stuff and skip the lower tiers whenever possible when playing solo. Unless of course I just want to hear a song that I like.

I was pleasantly surprised that the note chart makes good use of all the buttons and you don't play around the same 3-4 chords like most easy songs. The song is fairly simple although there are a few quick strums between chord changes that can break combos.

The song itself isn't that bad either. If you enjoy female rock music or say that Headphones On song, you would probably enjoy playing this one too. I don't mind playing along to Headphones On either, so take that for what its worth(just don't tell any of my friends I said that :P). For an easy song, its fairly fun to play. I don't quite think it is worth of a full 5 stars though.
02.25.10 12:27pm 0 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
Heartkiller      "Heart is still alive." Saccian
When I play this song, I keep thinking to myself this is what AFI would sound like if they decided to play more of a hard rock style. I am not really sure why, I just seem to get that feeling when playing along to it.

The song itself it pretty simple on the guitar. Both the chorus and verse are pretty much just chords as the song itself is pretty basic.

There is a small solo at the end that is fairly easy. There are a few HOPO triplets and one set of four pull offs but overall, there is nothing in this song that I would consider a combo breaker. Should be an easy FC for any average expert level player.

The song itself it decent so I give this one a 3 star or solid rating. It's not boring but not challenging either. The guy in music video looks a little freaky though.
02.25.10 12:04pm 0 Replies | Reply +1 Relevance
2 Minutes to Midnight      "Playing Bass at 11:58 is somewhat thrilling. " Saccian
In general, I prefer to play Guitar when playing the stringed instruments or I guess I should say the plastic button ones here. I usually get bored with Bass as the note charts are often a lot less lively and just follow the rhythm guitar. Thanks to Steve Harris, playing Bass for 2 Minutes to Midnight is pretty fun.

The bass guitar here has more of a lead bass feel rather than following the guitar similar to many Rush songs. The song starts out with a simple bassline that eventually turns into a slower gallop. There are a bunch of cool licks during the chorus that go all over the 'fretboard' if you will. The song goes back and forth through the galloping and the more lively chorus and then back again to the initial bassline. There are a handful of HOPO's throughout the song as well to lessen strum-fest feel that many songs have for Bass.

This song has a quick tempo and you're never playing the same note for a long period of time. If you like, or at least don't hate Heavy Metal music, I would recommend this song for any Guitar/Bass player. To be honest I would recommend the whole pack as it is one of my favorites.
02.22.10 4:34am 0 Replies | Reply 0 Relevance
Grind      "A little boring." Saccian
I was a huge Alice in Chains fan back when I was still a teenager and was quite excited when their Self Titled album first came out. Back then, I would probably have placed Grind as the fourth best song on that album. I would have preferred Again or Over Now rather than Grind from this album. Despite this, I was still looking forward to getting the whole Alice in Chains Track Pack 02.

The first play through was mostly nostalgic as I had not heard the song since the 90's. By the second play though, I saw the song for what it was. The verse consist mostly of long sustained notes and a few chord changes. The chorus is mainly the lead guitar picking a simple riff.

After 3 minutes of playing Warm-up level stuff on my plastic guitar I found myself getting very bored. Then suddenly out of nowhere comes the solo. While it isn't overly difficult, its a total change of pace and I often find myself 'zoned out' by this stage and seem mess up way more than I should.

This song is ranked as Challenging for guitar but without the solo it would be more like a Warm-Up level one. For my personal tastes this song is too slow paced for the guitar. Without the solo I would likely only give it 2 stars.

If you are solely a guitar player, I would only recommend this song for true AIC fans unless you don't mind slow beats and enjoy the song itself. Going by the average rating for this song though, I may be a little harsh.
02.21.10 10:34am 0 Replies | Reply +2 Relevance
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Stats
Overall
22 Full Reviews, 33 Ratings
4.3091 Average Rating
+26 Votes (49 Up / 23 Down)

Received 11 comments, posted 11 comments
Guitar
21 Full Reviews, 21 Ratings
0 Average Rating
+26 Votes (47 Up / 21 Down)
Bass
1 Full Reviews, 5 Ratings
0 Average Rating
0 Votes (2 Up / 2 Down)
Drums
0 Full Reviews, 4 Ratings
0 Average Rating
0 Votes ( Up / Down)
Vocals
0 Full Reviews, 2 Ratings
0 Average Rating
0 Votes ( Up / Down)
Keys
0 Full Reviews, 1 Ratings
0 Average Rating
0 Votes ( Up / Down)
DJ
0 Full Reviews, 0 Ratings
0 Average Rating
0 Votes ( Up / Down)