Here's this week's first playthrough scores, stem confirmations and impressions for this week's DLC:
”Burnin' for You" - Blue Öyster Cult - [Guitar: Tier 4 | Bass: Tier 3 | Drums: Tier 4 | Vocals: Tier 3]
Expert Guitar: 166,430 | 100% Notes Hit (692/692) Full Combo | Gold Stars
Expert Bass: 151,806 | 100% Notes Hit (691/691) Full Combo | Gold Stars
”There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" - Shawn Mendes - [Guitar: Tier 2 | Bass: Tier 0 | Drums: Tier 4 | Vocals: Tier 4]
Expert Guitar: 84,962 | 100% Notes Hit (464/464) Full Combo | Gold Stars
Expert Bass: 10,650 | 100% Notes Hit (069/069) Full Combo | Gold Stars
Stem Confirmations: As mentioned before, ”Burnin' For You" doesn't have stems, it's a DIY job, but not an awful one by any stretch of the imagination. All the tracks are pretty clear and the track muffling/degradation when missing notes on your own instrument isn't as bad as the usual fare, the drums and bass take a hit in quality but the other instruments are pretty solid and hold up pretty well overall. ”There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" is 100% legit much like the other Mendes tracks in the game, full original masters and proper mixing here. So yeah, a competent DIY job and a legit track, not a bad week by any stretch!
DLC Impressions: ”Burnin' For You" is godlike on guitar. It's a great chart all the way through. Verses and choruses have a great mix of laid back chord strumming and 3-4 note hammer-on strings and the solo has all sorts of crazy fast fretwork that'll have your hand zipping back and forth all over the neck of the guitar. Even the outro has some pretty hectic licks between the usual chorus riff. Overall, one of the best guitar tracks of the year. Bass is great as well, lots of steady strumming and movement back and forth from green to orange. Overall, this week's BOC pick is a winner. Buy it! ”There's No Holdin' Me Back" on guitar is....eh...it's alright. Although it has some really bizarre charting at the start with speedy bursts of single strumming with awkward orange hammer-ons inbetween a series of notes that are crammed so close together it looks like there's chords charted when there isn't. That's how tightly packed the intro is. After that it's spaced out chords and some neat little hammer-on flourishes. Bass on the other hands is the worst fucking bass chart we've had since ”Dog Days Are Over" and ”Royals" in my opinion. A few held single note sustains and strummed notes followed by a huge expanse of fucking nothing for at least 20+ measures each time. Rinse and repeat three times and it's over. Fucking awful.