Drums

Drum gameplay remains nearly identical to previous entries in the series. The only new feature seen in drum charts is the use of drum roll lanes, which work the same as the new trill and strumming lanes on guitar. While these sections may make fast rolls easier overall, the timing window to hit the first note of the roll seems rather tight, and it is easy to overhit coming out of the rolls. Drummers also have the option to turn off the drum activation fills, causing activations to work similar to The Beatles: Rock Band where you just need to hit the green crash when it shows up in order to activate. Even though the lanes no longer appear with this option turned on, you can not gain points or break combo in the section that would be covered by the fill.

Top 5 Drum Songs That are Easier Than Suggested

1) The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button" - Without a doubt one of the simplest drum charts in the game. The whole song consists of 3 patterns, and after playing it once chances are most drummers could probably FC this with their eyes closed.

2) Rammstein - "Du Hast" - Most of this song is either a simple RY Y RY Y 8th note pattern with quarter note kicks underneath it, or a simple alternating open/closed hi hat pattern. The only thing that prevented a sightread FC on this was my batteries dying near the end.

3) The B-52's - "Rock Lobster" - The only reason I can see for this difficulty rating would be a matter of endurance, but honestly some of the other endurance based songs ("Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and "Whip It") seem more difficult.

4) Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train" - The hardest section of this song is probably the disco beats and the fills within them, but I honestly found the disco beat section in "Antibodies" to be more difficult. This tiering wouldn't be terrible if there weren't some songs in the prior tier that seemed more fitting of the Impossible tier status.

5) Rilo Kiley - "Portions For Foxes" - Most of this song is just slight variations on a basic rock beat with either one main fill that is repeated, or short snare rolls. While this tiering may not have felt too out of place as a DLC track, it does in comparison to the other songs in the setlist.

Top 5 Drum Songs That are Harder Than Suggested

1) Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like An Eagle" - This is just a really awkward chart to play. There's nothing wrong with the authoring itself, the drum part just rarely holds to a specific pattern. Other than Llama, this is the only song in the setlist I did not 5 star.

2) Lynyrd Skynrd - "Free Bird" - This chart makes this list for only one reason, and that is the long snare roll in the middle of the solo. With the roll lasting nearly a minute and more and more cymbal hits being worked in as it moves along, it is definitely not out of the question to fall off beat and fail out 8 minutes into the song.

3) Devo - "Whip It" - This song is an endurance nightmare. The whole time it's pretty much a constant RO R R YO R R RO pattern, except for some blue hits to represent the whip sounds. This pattern doesn't seem too difficult at the start of the song, but it will wear you out by the end.

4) Big Country - "In a Big Country" - This is a really fun chart to play, but some of the patterns and fills used in the song are pretty tricky given the low tiering of the song.

5) The Flaming Lips - "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" - Oh the joy of drum parts that were originally played by a drum machine. This chart makes frequent use of 4 or 5 8th note kick bursts, which seem pretty difficult for a 2nd tier song.

Top 5 Most Enjoyable Drum Songs

1) Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows" - I'm not at all surprised that this song took the spot on the top of the list. I've been holding out hope for this song to be released ever since the first Queens of the Stone Age pack was released at Rock Band 1's launch just to be able to play drums on it. Most of the song is played with a basic beat with a swinging pattern on the kicks, however this song is chock full of fun fills that will keep you moving all over the kit. To top it all off, the middle of the song contains an awesome drum solo during the guitar solo, which also marks the first occasion of solo sections appearing for multiple instruments at the same time.

2) Phoenix - "Lasso" - The drum solo at the start of the song lets you know immediately that you're in for a fun ride with this song. Thanks in part to this song being possibly one of the most overdubbed drum parts I've heard in this series, the chart is constantly changing around and giving you something new to play.

3) Dover - "King George" - This drum chart will probably come as a surprise to most people, as this song is one of the most obscure choices in the game. Although most of the song made up of the type of beats you would expect in most punk songs, the tom pattern in the bridge is a blast to play.

4) Juanes - "Me Enamora" -

5) Spacehog - "In the Meantime" - This chart has a near perfect balance of providing enough challenge to stay interesting without being irritating to play. While most of the song is a rather slow disco beat, the drum part really opens up in the last chorus. For maximum enjoyability be sure to try this song on pro drums.

Top 5 Most Difficult Drum Songs

1) Phish - "Llama" - In my mind, this is the hardest song we've seen on disc for drums. My first attempt at this resulted in me hitting a whopping 58% of the notes, the lowest I have ever gotten on a song on drums. Granted, this was after electing to continue playing after failing 12% of the way into the song. Sure "Run to the Hills" and "Visions" were fast, but they were far easier to flail your way through. Attempting to flail through "Llama" will only cause you to quickly fail out. The drum patterns in this song are not only fast to keep up with, but as soon as you think you have figured out the pattern a minor variation will throw you off beat and scrambling to get back in time. This chart is a true test of endurance, speed and limb independence.

2) Avenged Sevenfold - "Beast and the Harlot" - I hope your leg is warmed up before attempting this song. The verses will have you playing constant 8th note kicks, the chorus is a fast punk style beat (think of "All I Want" by The Offspring) and there is a very difficult drum solo in the middle of the song.

3) Anthrax - "Caught in a Mosh" - There are only a couple songs in this game that I truly despised playing on drums, but this is definitely one of them. Once you get past the intro, you'll be struggling to keep up for the rest of the song. With the song clocking in over 200 BPM, the 8th note hi hat's in the verse will quickly wear down your endurance.

4) Golden Earring - "Radar Love" - There's never a really easy section in this song, but the reason for the song making this list doesn't show up until the last 10 seconds of the song. Once you get to this point, prepare for one of the longest and trickiest drum fills in the game. If you aren't anticipating this ending, chances are you won't even have overdrive left to help you get through it.

5) Yes - "Roundabout" - This song starts out simple enough, but the true difficulty hits once you get to the bridge. This section goes on for a very long time, and consists of a rapidly changing pattern of ride and snare hits. All it takes is a small lapse in concentration here to find yourself staring at the song failed screen.