While there may not have been any DLC that shows up in the Music Store this week (unless you’re on Wii), people commenting that the streak has been broken seem to be forgetting that Xbox 360 and PS3 are receiving a 25 song track pack called Rock Band Blitz. Without further ado, here’s the first batch of reviews and playthroughs for the Rock Band Blitz pack. Included below are playthrough videos of the DLC from the always awesome thenewnoelisoncruz. Definitely check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel!

One Week, These Days, and Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to..) can be purchased on the Wii for 200 Points. Xbox 360 and PS3 must purchase Rock Band Blitz for 1200 MSP ($14.99).

Barenaked Ladies – One Week

The guitar on this song is hot like wasabi! It’s mostly some quick alt-strums (with enough breaks in between to keep it from becoming too alt-strummy!) along with some notes that take you across the fretboard. It’s pretty fun because while it’s challenging, it’s not daunting.

Bass, especially when compared to the other instruments, is so uninteresting you’d think you’re looking at Aquaman. Most of the song is just short bursts of simple notes followed by a bit of space. As someone who is a dedicated bassist, I was seriously disappointed.

Like Snickers, this drum part is guaranteed to satisfy. The part switches between three, not-easy-but-not-hard, beats. One for the verse, one for the fast rap(?) section, and one for the chorus. None of these are particularly hard, but because of the changing, it’ll keep you on your toes!

Keys, for the most part, are pretty easy. There is, however, one part where, like Harrison Ford, it gets frantic. The part in question happens during the second rap(?) section. Sadly, the rest of the song isn’t that great, being that it’s mostly just sustains on keys.

Like vanilla, vocals here seem to be the finest of the flavours. If you’re attempting this on solo vocals, you’re going to run in to something like Paradise By The Dashboard Light. There just isn’t any breathing room. For that alone, this song could have received an Impossible rating on vocals. Alas, it’s only Nightmare. Harmonies, provided you have another person, are still hard, but you won’t run out of breath during the song. The really fast rap(?) section is placed on the first harmony, while the chorus is on the main vocal line.

Foo Fighters – These Days

Guitar was pretty fun. It’s mostly comprised of one riff repeated through the song. Fortunately, the riff is great to play, and it’ll take you all over your fretboard! Also nice is that it’s not TOO hard, so it’s approachable for adept players while still keeping it interesting for the more seasoned players.

There is a far amount of downtime on the bass, but fortunately, when it’s playing it’s pretty fun! Like the guitar, it takes you all over the fretboard with a riff that can be interesting to players of all skill levels!

For Wii owners, this is easily the hardest song you’ll get. I’m not the greatest drummer, but I could barely even hold a combo on this song. The trouble with this is that the bass pedal is in a different timing that it is in most songs, so that could have thrown me off. The other thing is, there are quite a few fills, and rolls just thrown in to the song. It’s pretty fun, and a good challenge for some more adept drummers.

Vocals here threw me off a bit. I don’t know why, but my guess is because I’m not all that familiar with this song (I really need to get around to listening to Wasting Light). As far as harmonies are concerned, they’re only really present during the chorus, and all they do is double up on a few phrases. Not the greatest harmony part.

Queen – Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…)

The highlight of this guitar part is easily its two solos, but the rest of the guitar part is great too! Its got some great sections that will surely keep you on your toes throughout the whole song. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about Queen that’s amazing for Rock Band.

Bass here is somewhat sparse, and is the weakest part of the song. With that said, it’s still pretty fun to play. It’s got some little trills (not Trill Lanes) thrown in, but mostly it’s just steady rocking on a couple of notes.

Drums maintain a steady beat throughout the whole song, but that’s not to say it’s a boring beat! It has a couple fills in it, but nothing too difficult. It’s beat is mostly Hi-Hat/Hi-Hat-Bass/Snare/Hi-Hat-Bass. It’s tricky enough for beginner drummers, but nothing overwhelming.

Keys start out with a solo that seals the deal on this song’s Nightmare difficulty. The rest of the song is some fairly easy chords that stop the song’s intro from making the part Impossible tier.

Even We Will Rock You is fun on vocals. It’s just something about Queen songs that makes them so epically amazing on almost everything. With vocals you get to sing the one and only Freddie Mercury. Despite what its Impossible rating might tell you, however, I didn’t find it all that daunting. Granted, it’s still hard, but it’s not the hardest Queen song to sing.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Give It Away

Guitar remains relatively unchanged from the Rock Band 2 version, with the only real difference being Trill Lanes in the second solo. The solos themselves aren’t that fun (remember, the first solo is great if you needed that achievement in RB2 for FCing a solo with the solo buttons!). The part itself is quite fun, and as the Harmonix guys said during the livestream, the songs were picked because they’d be fun in Blitz and fortunately, that translates well into the main game!

Coming from the one and only Flea, I was disappointed in this bass line. With RHCP songs, I expect a certain difficulty associated with the bass. Here, it was just sliding across four notes on the bass. The most interesting parts of the bass are during the solos, where you slide across the four notes, but at the end you get to play a short string of HOPOs across all the frets.

Drums here are difficult to get at first, due to its bass pedal action, but once you get in to the groove (and trust me, it’s pretty groovy!), you should do fine on this song!

Keys, or rather, Mouth Harp, is pretty easy. One could compare it to the vocal part, pretty easy and you could probably FC it, except for a couple of sections that actually require work. Here it comes in the form of slides on the keyboard toward the end.

As far as harmonies go, there aren’t any. In fact, this is the only song in the whole Blitz package that doesn’t have harmonies. The other thing this lacks, save for the last section, is pitch. Not great for vocalists who care about challenge, but really good if you need an achievement!

Soundgarden – Spoonman

Guitar is still fun to play. Hell, this song would probably be fun to play in PowerGig. Or, maybe not, but I digress. The riff consists of alt-strummed chords, going on until the chorus where it then goes into a series of HOPOs that cover every button on the guitar. Then it goes back to the chords, until a solo where it does a similar thing to the chorus, just pumped up to the extreme! It was a great gameplay experience in RB2 and it’s a great gameplay experience here!

The only time the bass ever really takes a break on this song is during the drum solo, but that’s OK, because right after the drum solo is a BASS SOLO!! While it isn’t much of a solo (after all, you are just playing the chorus riff), it’s still enjoyable to play through. The rest of the song mirrors the guitar part, almost note for note, save for a chord here and there.

Drums, as far as tiers go, is the hardest one in Blitz. This song was also a nightmare (both in tier, and gameplay) in Rock Band 2. Who’d have thought that the drum solo would be the easiest part of the song! Drummers who are looking for a challenge, who never played RB2, or just haven’t played Spoonman in so long they’ve forgotten it, should love this song!

If you were to ask me 3 years ago what event I dreaded, when playing Rock Band 2 on my Wii, I would have told you High Budget Video Shoot. This is because at the time, due to the fact that I was (and still am) a singer in real life, I was almost exclusively a vocalist. The reason I dreaded this event was because the song was Spoonman. When I went to play it in Rock Band 3, something changed. Either I’m a better singer now (which I am), or the chart is easier. I still failed out, because I forgot to put no-fail on like I do with all my reviews, but unlike my old RB2 Wii days, I (almost) made it to the end. I only had one phrase left. The harmonies on this song can also be attributed to making it easier. It now splits up the “Steal the Rhythm With Your Hand/Steal the Rhythm While You Can” style sections to be on lead and harmonies.

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