Break week + Heavy MTL

This week we'll be taking a break due to conflicting schedules, but we'll be back for another double DLC week next week ("The Stooges" and "Bad Religion" + "Juanes" and "Avenged Sevenfold" weeks).

The Heavy MTL metal festival in Montréal this weekend will be a treat, with 34 bands playing on Saturday and Sunday. The festival bands that have Rock Band songs are Rob Halford (22 songs, including Judas Priest), Megadeth (18), Alice Cooper (6), Rob Zombie (6, including White Zombie), Avenged Sevenfold (4), Testament (4), Anvil (3), Norma Jean (3), Five Finger Death Punch (2), In This Moment (2), 3 Inches of Blood (1), Airbourne (1), Despised Icon (1), Korn (1), Lamb of God (1), Mastodon (1), Skeletonwitch (1), Slayer (1) and Winds of Plague (1). That is 19 of 34 bands!

One interesting thing to note is that Harmonix released the RBN track by "Winds of Plague" on the PS3 this week, just in time for the festival (they are playing Sunday)! That is perfect timing, thanks! :) Perhaps someone read some of my previous posts?

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (after playing them on sightread voxtar and solo drums):

3. "The Girl at the Video Game Store", by Parry Gripp: This was an especially strong week once again for RBN songs, with no regular DLC making this list ("Future Perfect Tense" came close with its neat intro and outro). This comedic song by singer-songwriter Parry Gripp is short and sweet. It has fun lyrics, plus a great drum chart due to the variety of fills.

2. "Trippolette", by Andrew Buch: This awesome instrumental prog song is also very short. It has a fun drum beat that is quite varied, plus a very challenging guitar solo. Apparently this was a secret song in Guitar Hero 1, but you needed a cheat device like a GameShark to unlock it.

1. "Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over", by The Devil Wears Prada: This song is interesting by default because of its quirky title, but it is my favorite of the week due to the variety of metal sounds. It is always refreshing as it goes from blackened death to brutal death to groove to metalcore to industrial... I also like the sliding bass note near the end.

Honorable mention. "Top Back", by Alias Unknown: This song deserves a special mention as it is one of the only urban or hip hop song in Rock Band (after the ones by MC Frontalot). I really like the growing diversity of genres that the RBN brings. Hopefully this trend will continue. The song sounds great, although it can be slightly repetitive. The main beat is fun and it has a few slightly more difficult sections.