Q&A with Guitar Hero's Marcus Henderson Video
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The man behind the game's earthshaking fretwork talks about his excellent punk-metal band Drist, and gives us exclusive dirt on the much anticipated Guitar Hero 2--all while tackling songs like "Godzilla" and "Frankenstein" in expert mode.
Play guitar to a virtual audience
From CES 2007: Marcus Henderson, guitarist for the band Drist and responsible for the majority of the guitar heard on the new Guitar Hero II, talks with CNET News.com's Neha Tiwari about the game's new release on Xbox 360. See a demo of the game and learn how it's played.
Loaded: The godfather of heavy metal
T-Mobile launches an app store, the BlackBerry comes in blush, and the godfather of metal, Ozzy Osbourne, is coming to "Guitar Hero."
Bad Brains: "Give Thanks and Praises"
The seminal Washington, D.C., act started off playing jazz, then proceeded to out-thrash punk and out-riff metal. All while focused on reggae. The group's Adam Yauch-produced latest brews up all these. It ends up a sludgy but ethereal cross of dub's echoes and punk's guitar-driven grime. Visit music.download.com for a free MP3 download of the song "Give Thanks and Praises": http://music.download.com/badbrains/3600-8709_32-100004566.html
Prizefight: 'Guitar Hero 3' vs. 'Rock Band'
Brian Tong brings you a battle of the bands between 'Guitar Hero 3' and 'Rock Band.' Who rocks harder? The Prizefight ring will decide it all.
'Guitar Hero' tournaments invade Apple stores.
At CES 2008, Brian Tong rocks out with the Guitar Hero Air Guitar.
Octavia Sperati: "Hunting Eye"
All female metal acts are hard to come by these days, but that is definitely not the primary reason why you should give this one a listen. Octavia is a relatively new six-piece, but have already been out supporting the mighty Enslaved and are now releasing their first album, a five-track EP. Initially somewhat reminiscent of bands like Nightwish and The 3rd and the Mortal, Octavia tackle their theatrical and progressive symfo-metal with more of a standard-rock approach than either of those. Silje Wergeland's vocals are exploring and inventive, leaving a unique and memorable imprint on the songs, while the music is churning and riff-heavy, repetitive at times, yet always opening up to new layers ands nuances of sounds. The two guitars in particular do tend to blur a bit, seemingly playing the same lines on top of each other, and it would probably be a good idea for Octavia to explore their limits and instrumental boundaries a bit more. However, the inventive and heavy bass playing of Trine C. Johansen along with Hege S. Larsen's effective and propelling drumming do add some welcomed tension and progressive momentum to proceedings. With songs like "Nebula" and "Guilty, Am I," Octavia prove they have some interesting stories to tell, and their folk-infused and melodic progressive metal are delivered with engaging energy and passion. A welcome surprise, this, and a forthcoming full-length album could prove to be a real winner.
Promise Ring: "Emergency! Emergency!"
The year was 1995, and there was a battle of the bands brewing somewhere between the Wisconsin and Illinois state lines. In the middle of it all was Davey vonBohlen - forced to choose between his guitar stint for future punk heroes Cap'n Jazz and his status as the frontman for a burgeoning, though wholly unestablished The Promise Ring. As history would have it, the answer was obvious: The Promise Ring were toast. Of course, final hurrahs were sometimes meant to be, and since The Promise Ring had yet to see theirs, Davey agreed to a final nine-day trek across the country with his dearly departed side project. When the band landed back home in Milwaukee, vonBohlen unpacked his gear and expressed a deep sigh of relief. And then he quit Cap'n Jazz. Such is the inception of a band who have outlived almost all of their peers, while surviving horrid van wrecks, personal medical emergencies, and the rise and fall of a genre they somehow managed to inspire without ever really figuring out what it was in the first place. After signing with Jade Tree in 1996, The Promise Ring went on to release a slew of EPs and full-length albums that have seen accolades everywhere from the well-respected pages of The New York Times to the uber-groovy Teen People. But don't let that fool you: The real acclaim is in the captured hearts of a fanbase that have kept this Milwaukee unit up-and-running for the more-than-six-years after that fateful "final" tour. After many happy years together and 8 releases, The Promise Ring departed Jade Tree for the Anti- label, a division of Epitaph, in October 2001.
MTV shows its future in virtual worlds, new 'Guitar Hero'
At the Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, Calif., MTV Networks' Jeff Yapp shows his company's role in virtual worlds now and in the future. He also gives a glimpse of the new, full-band 'Guitar Hero.'
