Even more metal is making its way next week to Rock Band as DLC. All songs will be offered at $1 apiece for a month, then the price will double. You may commence the banging of heads ... now.

Roadrunner pack (480 / $6 for one month, then it jumps to 800 / $10)

• "Runnin' Wild" - Airbourne (80 / $1 for one month, then it jumps to 160 / $2, same applies to all other songs)
• "Clouds Over California" - DevilDriver (80 / $1)
• "Constant Motion" - Dream Theater (80 / $1)
• "My Curse" - Killswitch Engage (80 / $1)
• "Aesthetics Of Hate" - Machine Head (80 / $1)
• "Sleepwalker" - Megadeth (80 / $1)

Videos for the tracks can be found after the break. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

IGN was able to pin down seven new tracks for Guitar Hero World Tour and it's, well ... it's a mixed bag, to put it kindly. Let's take a look:

• Airbourne – "Too Much Too young..."
• At the Drive-in – "One Armed Scissor"
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – "Weapon of Choice"
• Bob Seger – "Hollywood Nights"
• Dinosaur Jr. – "Feel the pain"
• Silversun Pickups – "Lazy Eye"
• Survivor – "Eye of the Tiger"

Anything jump out at you specifically? Yep, Bob Seger. Now, of the Bob Seger songs you could choose from, you could do a lot worse than "Hollywood Nights." But Seger is also responsible for "Old Time Rock 'n' Roll," which is scientifically, quantifiably the second worst song ever recorded (after Phil Collins' version of "Groovy Kind of Love.") Shouldn't that preclude Seger's involvement with anything ever? Or are we being too restrictive?

If you had asked us what Ozzy Osbourne had in common with Bret Michaels just yesterday, we would have only been able to come up with "relentlessly unwatchable reality shows." But today we learn that both are members of the proud fraternity of artists featured in Guitar Hero games that aren't really known for playing guitar. G4 reported today that Ozzy would appear in Guitar Hero: World Tour, as would his tracks "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley."

Arguably, Ozzy makes for a more logical addition now that the game includes singing as well as shredding. But we're still happy to hear that he'll be bringing actual guitar hero Zakk Wylde along for digitization.

[Via ScoreHero]

The original Rock Band on Wii was, well, not really Rock Band. It looked and played the part, but lacked a certain something. Or, rather, somethings. You know, like downloadable songs, online play, create-a-rocker, and a proper World Tour mode a la the 360 and PS3 versions. Thankfully that won't be the case with Rock Band 2.

Wired reports that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will, according to Harmonix, be "fully-featured." In fact, this includes DLC (no word on how that's going to work storage-wise) and online play. If it's going to be a "much more competitive product" as its developers say, then we should also expect to be making music with band members of our own design and touring the world as we see fit when the game hits the stage in November.

[Via NWF]

It's alright Lars, you don't need to keep it a secret any longer. With or without your intimations, we all know Guitar Hero: Metallica will be joining the pantheon of geriatric rock simulators right alongside that other game, probably next summer. But if you really just want to get it off your chest, go right on ahead ...

When asked about the existence of the aforementioned game by MTV News, Metallica drummer and lead Napster-hater Lars Ulrich said, "... if somebody's gonna follow [GH: Aerosmith] up ... we're talking, and its exciting, and the people at Guitar Hero and Activision are rapidly becoming our best new friends in the world. You can put the rest of it together yourself." We took a moment to put those various pieces together and, sure enough, they basically assembled the retail packaging for the game. For further evidence, hit up the video after the break.

Your attention has probably already turned to the Fall and the imminent arrival of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. But we've always believed that one should make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold. Actually, that's a song the Girl Scouts sing, but we think the logic still holds true. So we won't be forgetting about old friend Guitar Hero III, which will be getting a brand new track pack tomorrow.

You can expect Flyleaf's "Tina," "Carcinogen Crush" by AFI and a remix of Marilyn Manson's "Putting Holes In Happiness" by Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. There's no price attached, but 500 points seems to be the standard for this sort of thing.

Let's preface this piece with two points: 1) No official Rock Band 2 release date has been set for any console. 2) No official Rock Band 2 release date has been set for any console. Clear? Let's do this.

MCV reports (via Spong) that "a handful" of North American retailers have listed the release date for Rock Band 2 on PS3 as "November 23rd -- just a month after the October 19th release date." Cutting through several bits of minutia, we don't know where this October release date comes from as Harmonix reconfirmed to us today that the Xbox 360 version releases in September.

We did check with the fine folks at Amazon who said their information comes "directly from the vendor." Meaning that current information has the standalone game of RB2 releasing Sept 14, the "Special Edition" with the instruments is available for both Xbox and PS3 on Oct 19, along with the PS3 standalone version of the game. But, let's be clear, once again: No official Rock Band 2 release date has been set for any console.

Ready to "beat it" with fire-lit butterfly wings? (Note to self: That came out wrong.) The latest issue of Stuff Magazine (via Guitar Hero Community) has a Guitar Hero World Tour preview, which lists nine confirmed tracks and five more confirmed artists. Although we already knew a few of those songs, five of them are new, including The Doors' "Light My Fire," Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and -- yes, really -- Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

Additionally, two of the listed artists with "unknown" track contributions already have confirmed songs (Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher"). Newcomers include Muse, Beastie Boys and Nirvana. We've compiled a list of confirmed GHWT tracks after the break.

Okay, maybe what controversial private military company (PMC) Praying Mantis Blackwater Worldwide is actually trying to say by airdropping complete Guitar Hero setups to US troops in Afghanistan is "Make music, not war ... well, actually, make war too – after you've FC'd a few songs."

The Associated Press reports that James Overton, a Blackwater recruiter, wants to bundle an Xbox 360, projector, and an undisclosed Guitar Hero iteration together in a package that can be deployed as a battlefield moral booster. "Every [military] place I've ever been to overseas, they've got like backgammon and Parcheesi and chess, and they're all gathering dust," Overton told the AP, adding, "But this is the stuff they play at home. And any semblance of home we can give them is best."

Overton did not disclose who the troops call if their 360 displays a Red Ring of Death as a result of being dropped from the transport plane.

[Via Gamasutra]

Harmonix announced its tracks for next week's Rock Band DLC and it's a slathering of metal. Yes, we're sure there's a better way to describe these bands than just saying "metal." Alternative metal? Post-modern alternative metal? Thrash pre-philosophy metal? Alternative existential rock? We can't keep track of sub-genres anymore.

Individual songs (160 MS points/ $2)

• "They Say" - Scars on Broadway (160 MS points/ $2)
• "This is it" - Staind (160 MS points/ $2)
• "Electric Crown" - Testament (160 MS points/ $2)
• "Yomp" - The New No 2 (80 MS points/ $1)

Check out videos for these songs after the break. The tracks will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

We hope you didn't get your hopes up regarding Guitar Hero World Tour's hypothetical set list, which included songs from such bands as REO Speedwagon, Rob Zombie, and whole lot of Tool. Game Informer reports that both Activision and Red Octane have come forward, denouncing the list as a fraud.

While some of the tracks listed will make it into the game, such as Van Halen's Hot for Teacher, the report calls the lion's share of the list "wishful thinking and pure speculation." We're sorry Tool fans, but you'll have to get your progressive rock fix somewhere else.

Honestly, with a new, four-instrument Guitar Hero game just around the corner, we're not exactly sure why you'd sink one more penny into DLC for Guitar Hero III. That is, of course, unless you're so obsessed with the guitar that you think the inclusion of drum and vocals sullies the very name of Guitar Hero. If that describes you, then you may just find today's offer pretty tantalizing.

As you may remember, the Virtuoso Track Pack includes "Surfing with the Alien" as performed by Joe Satriani, "For the Love of God" as performed by Steve Vai and "Soothsayer" as performed by Buckethead. And, as we guessed, you can get the whole lot for 500 points.

Nintendo is holding some sort of event today in Japan, far from our watchful eye. Though it may be able to hide from the Joystiq Biomass, it can't hide from the internet, as the folks at NeoGAF have once again proven. User Jonnyram got some tidbits from the Japanese Rambling Man blog, which (according to his translation) says you can expect to see Wii Music in the Land of the Rising Sun on Oct. 16.

If the post can be believed, you can also look for Captain Rainbow in August, colored Wiimote straps in September and Valkyrie Profile DS on Oct. 2. We're a couple of language barriers removed from the source, so we wouldn't write it in stone, but the info does seem to represent our best guess at a Wii Music window for the moment.

[Via NeoGAF]

You can say what you like about the "listenability" of Dragonforce's music, but there are two things you just can't argue with. 1. Their music is extremely difficult to play in Guitar Hero and 2. They have a hell of a talent for naming songs. Rule 2 has been proven once again with a downloadable track pack coming from the band to Guitar Hero III on August 21.

The track pack will include "'Heroes Of Our Time' (rad!) the first single from the new album Ultra Beatdown (also rad!) as well as Inhuman Rampage (totally rad!) classics 'Operation Ground and Pound' (radder!) and 'Revolution Deathsquad' (raddest!)." So, will rule 1 also be confirmed with the new pack? Well, when a song's called 'Revolution Deathsquad,' we're at least hoping to end up with some blisters.

The supposed full set list for Guitar Hero World Tour has been making its way around the forums (Something Awful, GameFAQs). The 87-song list is divided by 73 main tracks and 14 bonus tracks. Additionally, there are 3 guitar battles (Ted Nugent, Zakk Wylde ... and renowned bassist Sting) and 7 "sample songs," presumably for the song creation mode. We're still looking into the source of the list; with no official word from Activision or Neversoft, consider this a rumor. Full set list after the break.