Kicking off Harmonix's inevitable quest to "steal" as many songs from Guitar Hero 5 in the coming months is a three-pack from Kings of Leon, featuring the much-anticipated and critically acclaimed hit "Sex on Fire." The grand, reverb-heavy track which became the most downloaded digital single of all time makes a fantastic transition to the music game world, and is definitely the highlight here.
Featuring a subtle, semi-muted guitar riff that requires every note be picked while moving all the way up and down the neck, the beginning portion of this song may have you seeing "Visions." Descending, this section plays like OBYRG, but coming back up it leaves out the yellow note, making it GRBO, which I found to be an interesting quirk. Very fun stuff. Then you have the chorus buildup, in all its sweeping post-rock glory -- some three note chords here, followed by that memorable screechy guitar bend, satisfyingly authored as a B to BO hammer-on chord.
Drums on this are a simple beat for the most part, made more palatable by the fact that there's a tamborine mixed in. Good rolls and fills throughout; some straight red notes, some have awkward sticking patterns with red and yellow, and one that I recall had fast every-other-note bass pedal.
"Crawl"'s bassline sounds like it's coming from blown speakers, and fits right in with last week's Dead Weather pack in that regard. It's great to listen to, but not to play. Guitar is sparse but fun, a lot of movement with the main riff, and some moments of consistent strumming. The mixing on this track is very odd, what with the bass turned up about a thousand times too loud, so occasionally it's vague what you're even playing on guitar. At the end of the song there's a lengthy noise solo, that's actually pretty great, but starts off with strumming that's way too fast to even be approachable. This is another case of Don't Go Away Mad or East Jesus Nowhere, where the strum limit is going to make this section impossible to even get 95% on unless you own a PAL console (or are really, really lucky.)
Drum beat is awesome, with off-beat bass and triple kicks, but there's no variation.
"Molly's Chambers" takes things back to 2003 and the sound is much different; this is the most straight-ahead rock oriented in the pack. It reminded me of Southern blues meets Nirvana meets Eddie Dingle. Short song, with a short solo that's no joke; lots of SRV-esque descending 2-note chords with HOPO chords thrown in that may be more likely to trip you up than assist you. It's like "Gimme Three Steps" on speed.
Drums keep it simple, but significantly ramp it up during the solo, where it introduces quick double bass hits and alternating R/B patterns before you have time to react. The solo section should be fun by anyone's standards.
On vocals, I'd say all three are above average, and "Sex on Fire" is one to return to if you're able to hit those uninhibited high notes. All-around, a great introduction to the band.
