It’s the re-return of THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND! Life has been busy, the blog has been suffering. Thanks to Simon for keeping up with some posts. Due to too much Rock Band news right now, I need to do a TWIRB. Green Day demo is live, Lost fans get some Drive Shaft, Pantera will ruin us all. So, here goes THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

Green Day: Rock Band Demo on Xbox Live

While checking my Twitter updates this morning I stumbled on the Xbox Live Marketplace account which mentioned, Green Day: Rock Band Demo.  So, I dug into it to find as of today the is a two song demo of the game available right now to Xbox Live Gold members.  It’s about 300MB, so it’s relatively small.

I have queued up the download and will be checking it out whenever I get out of work tonight.

If you have an Xbox Live Gold account, you can queue up the demo here.

If you haven’t pre-ordered the game, Amazon is now (finally) offering release day shipping, plus $20 off your next game and $5 of Amazon MP3s.  Pretty sweet deal! It’s the best deal there is. Pre-order Green Day: Rock Band for Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii here.

Pantera is now on Rock Band

Read Simon’s post from last week about the Pantera announcement, for all the details.  From my point of view, Pantera was one of the most influential bands of my teens and twenties. I was a drummer and singer in various bands, and most all would at some point use a Pantera song to warm up during practices. I had seen the band live many times, and shed a tear the morning after Dimebag Daryl was killed.

As of today, Pantera’s final great album (IMO) is available for Rock Band. I could only be happier, if Harmonix and Pantera would release their three preceding albums too. So, if you are like me, get this album now, and I will see you on Xbox Live tonight to sweat and scream the intensity of The Great Southern Trendkill.

It’s Dharma Time

Lost fans, stop crying and get ready to rock! Charlie Pace’s band Drive Shaft showed up in the Rock Band Network yesterday with their fictional hit, You All Everybody. Yes, I picked it up last night for a measly 80 MS Points ($1).  Yes, I played as Charlie on expert bass. Yes, I took heroine. Yes, I was a real rock star for a few minutes (in my living room by myself). Yes, it was well worth it.

If you are craving some more Lost in your life, or just want to add another cheap song to your Rock Band library, here’s the link to queue up You All Everybody.

With that, what’s NWIRB?  NEXT WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

• More Green Day: Rock Band announcements as we lead up to June 8.
• We wait in anticipation of the June 15 announcement of Rock Band 3 at E3.

Available on Tuesday, May 20th, Harmonix today announced that the long awaited Pantera DLC will appear in the music store, and it is none other than ten tracks from “The Great Southern Trendkill“  from 1996.  The DLC will cost 1280 MSP for the entire offering, and 160 MSP a-la-carte.  Harmonix has released yet another full album of music that is sure to be a top seller.

• “The Great Southern Trendkill”
• “War Nerve”
• “Drag the Waters”
• “10′s”
• “13 Steps to Nowhere”
• “Suicide Note Pt. II”
• “Living Through Me (Hells’ Wrath)”
• “Floods”
• “The Underground in America”
• “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”

It’s really happening.  Drag the Waters!  War Nerve!  Flood!  That solo from Flood!  Those vocals from Flood!  Rock Band DLC is going to be on fire next week.  The fans have been waiting for over two years for this day to come, including us at MyGGGo.

Pantera is the modern American standard for Heavy Metal.  Formed in Texas in 1981 by original members Rex Brown, Diamond “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, they originally focused on the popular “Glam” scene of the day.  It was only after vocalist Phil Anselmo joined in 1987 and the band changed their sound to metal that the band gained any notoriety, particularly with 1990′s “Cowboys from Hell”.    The band followed up with chart-breaking album after album, not the least of which were ’92′s “Vulgar Display of Power” and ’94′s “Far Beyond Driven”.  By 1995 the group’s morale had hit an all time low – in fact Anselmo recorded all the vocals to “The Great Southern Trendkill” in a completely separate studio.   Although Pantera released nine studio albums, had several platinum albums (an achievement for any group, let alone a metal band) and countless world tours, the disharmony in the band caused the group to break up forever in 2002.  Tragedy struck again in 2004 when Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage while performing with his new band, Damageplan, which destroyed any hope of a Pantera reunion.  The band has since released a greatest hits album of sorts, in March of this year.

“Trendkill” is one of their masterpieces, and the only Pantera album I perfer to listen to in its entirety.  One track is notably missing, “Suicide Note Pt. I”, and I can only assume this is because of the diverse nature of the song which features 12-string acoustics, keyboards, and no electric guitar, or perhaps the fact that the band preferred to play this song over the P.A. in concert rather than try to play it live.  Instead we are given the bonus track, “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”.

Next Week’s Predictions:  It’s going to be 1992 all over again with music from Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots, all of which have new albums on May 25th.

There is some interesting pontification going on over at the Rock Band forums today, around one of the most anticipated (and yet still not delivered) bands to be added to the Rock Band DLC arsenal. The one and only, Pantera.

From newcomer phildo2000 over at RockBand.com

I know RB likes to sometimes time their DLC releases with cd releases……well check out the news below. March 30?????

“The planned onslaught of Pantera reissues will soon kick off with what looks to be a new greatest hits collection set to be the first out of the gate. Due out through Atlantic/Warner on March 30th is a new compilation titled “1990-2000: A Decade Of Domination“. No further details have been revealed as to what the offering will feature as of yet.” I got this info from www.theprp.com.

For me, I’m more than ready for some Pantera. 1 song, a 3 pack, or their entire greatest hits collection…I’ll take them all.

What about you?