Rock Band Metal Track Pack

(EA for Xbox 360)
By Mike Delano

This is a no-frills package: Just 20 songs to play in strict order, and the ability to add them to your Rock Band library. It’s focused on people who are unaware or uninterested in the far more exciting prospect of downloading new Rock Band songs as they are released on the Xbox Live Marketplace each week (or they can’t/don’t hook their 360 up to the Internet). This sampling of some of the metal tracks released in the past two years is serviceable, if slight (20 tracks, and missing heavyweights like Metallica and Iron Maiden) and oddly sequenced (Hawkwind’s space odyssey “Master of the Universe” nestles up against the crunch of Godsmack and the Gothy pop-metal of Lacuna Coil). And no, still no swearing: When Randy Blythe yells “see who gives a fuck” during “Laid to Rest,” your avatar will spit instead of mouthing the offending word. But in the age of swine flu, isn’t that even more metal?
(www.ea.com)