Whenever Activision releases fresh Guitar Hero III tracks via Xbox Live, we'll run out onto our website stage like roadies and review the latest downloadable content. Check back often — and to read our reviews of previous downloadable tracks, click here.

The Modern Metal Track Pack contains three songs for 500 Microsoft Points ($6.25). The tracks are not available for individual sale.

Modern Metal Track Pack

WHAT ROCKS: Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy" is a musical obstacle course -- and if you're looking for a skill workout, you'll love running it. It's full of cascades, triplets, enjoyable hammer-ons, and tricky chord changes. The Expert bassline plays like a Hard guitar line. It's very rewarding.

WHAT SUCKS: "The Arsonist" by Thrice is powered by two interesting riffs and then drowns in repetition. And while we were expecting big things from the Deftones track, “Hole in the Earth” is straight-up boring. It also goes on way too long. There’s some off-meter stuff that proves tricky on Hard (the pattern simplifies on Expert for some reason) but it’s still not actually fun. A bad choice from a good band.

FINAL VERDICT: What’s a nice track like "Almost Easy" doing in a pack like this? We just can't recommend spending $6.25 for one really satisfying song. If these tracks were available as individual songs, it might be a different verdict, but with two boring songs and one good one, we'll pass.