New this week: Pantera + a keyboard?

Having some Pantera songs join the Rock Band catalog would certainly have been the most interesting news of the week if it wasn't for a surprise in the "Green Day: Rock Band" demo. Apparently it shows a Rock Band 3 image with the traditional instrument logos, plus a new keyboard logo!

I wonder what percentage of songs will have keyboard support and if the existing DLC with some keyboard elements will get new charts. It will certainly be lots of fun to try a new instrument for this type of game, the first in the Rock Band franchise since the drums and mic 3 years ago. Due to the vocal harmonies also being included in Rock Band 3, we'll potentially need to grow to a 7-member band! :)

As for Pantera, I'm really happy to finally see them in Rock Band. I saw them live after they released their 2nd and 3rd groove metal albums ("Vulgar Display of Power" and "Far Beyond Driven") and they were one of the best live bands I've ever seen. Unfortunately we are getting in my opinion the worst of their 5 post-"hair metal" albums, but we'll take what we can can get...

Hopefully that means we'll eventually get their best songs as additional full album DLC or as part of a compilation. If it's a compilation, I would love if it included some of these tracks (3 favorites from each of their first 3 groove metal albums): "Cowboys From Hell", "Cemetary Gates", "The Sleep", "Mouth for War", "Walk", "This Love", "5 Minutes Alone", "I'm Broken" and "Planet Caravan". Dimebag Darrell, we certainly miss you!

This week we'll also be passing "Ride Sally Ride" for 11th place in the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week:

3. "A Girl Like You", by The Smithereens: Last week we played this after finishing the new Greateful Dead songs (which are complex as usual), so playing this song was an interesting change of pace. Rarely has such simple music sounded so good. The vocals are quite catchy, the bass chart is pretty simple but always fun, the drum chart has a few interesting off-beat red fills. It also includes a neat guitar solo that has varying strum speeds.

2. "Beat It on Down the Line", by The Grateful Dead: This is an awesome energetic 60s rock song. The drum chart has some really tough fills but the main beat is constant and fun. The guitar and bass charts are very dynamic due to the constant note changes. I liked the single fast notes with the occasional triple note slides on guitar. The vocals had a pretty good range. It was neat to sing a more traditional rock & roll song. Overall this 3rd Grateful Dead pack was well worth the money (other highlights include the great bass groove of "Scarlet Begonias", the fun swingin' country of "Cumberland Blues" and the dynamic guitar and crazy drum pattern changes of "U.S. Blues" ("Truckin'" on steroids...). If you're a guitar or bass player, you owe it to yourself to get these songs!

1. "He Sleeps in a Grove", by Amberian Dawn: Wow, this song is from an amazing "Nightwish"-type Finnish band (symphonic power metal). It's one of my favorite new DLC in a long time. The singer has a great operatic voice with a good range and the riffs are very epic and complex. There were 3 or 4 very interesting drum patterns with a few tough fills. The bass pattern was great, with a very challenging part during the guitar solo. The guitar chart is one of the best I've seen lately, with a few great single note riffs and a pretty complex solo. Hopefully we'll get some other great Scandanivian metal one day (ex: "Opeth", "Dimmu Borgir", "Amon Amarth", "Kalmah", "Dark Tranquility", etc...). In my opinion, "Nightwish" and "Dimmu Borgir" are the best bands to combine metal with a real orchestra (ex: "Ghost Love Score (Nightwish) and "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse ("Dimmu Borgir")), but Amberian Dawn could also produce a great one someday.

Honorable mention. "Talk About", by Dear and the Headlights: This song deserves a mention due to its awesome drum chart. It includes a neat swingin' beat with double hits, plus a very interesting roll type beat later on. The song itself is quite catchy but it is a bit odd. The bass chart has a lot of stop/start moments, but what is there is fun. The guitar chart is quite varied but fairly simple. The vocals were always fun, especially the "la-di-da-di-da" part. Hooray for RBN diversity! :)