Guitar Hero II - All "regular" songs revealed + analyzed

1. Opening Licks

* Mötley Crüe - "Shout at the Devil": Actually a pretty cool Crue song, for what it's worth. I played it, it's not too difficult, but it's way harder than "I Love Rock n Roll"
* Danzig - "Mother": Danzig's best song probably. It's kinda slow, but it's cool.
* Cheap Trick - "Surrender": Cheap Trick's best song probably. No that it says much.
* Wolfmother - "Woman": Don't know this song.
* Spinal Tap - "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight": YEAH! Putting Spinal Tap on this is a genius move.

2. Amp-Warmers

* KISS - "Strutter": A pretty cool song as far as KISS goes, plus it has some entertaining guitar noodling. I've played it, the chorus, filled with three button chords, took a little adjustment.
* Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box": Not that Nirvana leads are incredibly complicated, but it's good to have some variety.
* The Police - "Message in a Bottle": Good on them not to pick the really obvious Police songs.
* Van Halen - "You Really Got Me": Not the ovbious VH choice, but a fine one nonetheless. I've played it, so far it's been my favorite.
* Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son": A little prog to spice things up. Pretty good song, I guess.

3. String-Snappers

* Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench": Don't know this one either.
* Alice in Chains - "Them Bones": Pretty sweet song.
* Iggy Pop and The Stooges - "Search and Destroy": One of the few punk songs on here, though I think that's a good thing. Let's face it, people don't idolize punk guitar playing.
* The Pretenders - "Tattooed Love Boys": Don't know this either.
* Black Sabbath - "War Pigs": Awesome, awesome song - though it will be tough to see if I can be interested for the whole 8 and a half minutes.

4. Thrash and Burn

* Warrant - "Cherry Pie": I don't specifically remember this song, but Warrant kinda sucks
* Butthole Surfers - "Who Was in My Room Last Night?": Ha. Butthole Surfers.
* Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend": Hm, this is the only one where I don't even know the artist. It sounds familiar (though gay).
* The Rolling Stones - "Can't You Hear Me Knocking": Whoa, they got the Stones. Not that I really love the Stones, but it's an accomplishment.
* Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine": Hopefully whoever sings this doesn't take the Axl Rose impersonation too seroiusly. Cool riff though.

5. Return of the Shred

* Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name": YEAH! Awesome choice. I wonder if they can get a good Zach de la Rocha impersonator though. But the solo is awesome.
* Primus - "John the Fisherman": It will be the original recording of the song. Though it has a pretty cool yet pretty weird guitar playing, this will most likely be about the bass.
* The Sword - "Freya": Another artist I don't even know.
* Thin Lizzy - "Bad Reputation": Thin Lizzy is pretty cool, though you wonder if maybe playing that little melody from The Boys are Back in Town would be cooler.
* Aerosmith - "Last Child": Another well-made, non obvious pick. Not that I really love Aerosmith either, but still.

6. Relentless Riffs

* Heart - "Crazy on You": Some classic rock stuff.
* Stone Temple Pilots - "Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart": Some alt stuff.
* Stray Cats - "Rock This Town": Some I don't know stuff. Wait now I remember, they're that awesome rockabilly group. Yeah!
* The Allman Brothers Band - "Jessica": Oh yeah, the Allman Brothers Band! Talk about a cool group of guitarists.
* Jane's Addiction - "Stop!": Notice the amount of funk-metal in this game as compared to the last.

7. Furious Fretwork

* Anthrax - "Madhouse": Not really a band known for their guitar leads, but it's a good song.
* The Living End - "Carry Me Home": No idea.
* Lamb of God - "Laid to Rest": Modern metal. Not really my thing.
* The Reverend Horton Heat - "Psychobilly Freakout": This song rules though. It's pretty fast.
* Rush - "YYZ": The long instrumental, I'd say it's II's response to I's "Frankenstein". Played it, pretty tough, and not even that particularly fun. Maybe the Geddy Lee bass parts will be cooler.

8. Face-Melters

* Avenged Sevenfold - "Beast and the Harlot": Don't like the band, but I guess for what it's worth it could be fun to play their solos.
* Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized": Good band, and though most people love this song, I don't really. But obviously I'm in the minority there.
* Dick Dale - "Misirlou": You know, the surf song. Awesome choice.
* Megadeth - "Hangar 18": A real ass-kicker. The first installment had a Megadeth song, but it wasn't so awesome since it was probably their easist riff to play. This one is long with a huge amount of complex solos. It will be a challenge.
* Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird": I don't know. It's a bit of an obvious choice to stick in as the "boss song". I think it should be Hangar 18.

Bonus Tracks

* The Last Vegas - "Raw Dog": They won the Be A Guitar Hero contest, so I'm sure it's shredding and pretty cool.
* Drist - "Arterial Black": Drist is pretty cool and Marcus Henderson tears it up.

Final Comments:
Some overall nice variety and selection. Less punk, more rockabilly and more hair-metal. Moves which, in my mind, play up to the game's strengths. Some obvious things still missing:
- "Crazy Train" by Ozzy or really any sort of Randy Rhoads solos.
- Anything by Metallica or Iron Maiden (I'd love to play "Battery" or "2 Minutes to Midnight")
- AC/DC or Deep Purple. Specifically, I'd like "Highway Star".
- Some Run-D.M.C. maybe?

I guess we can still hope in the bonus songs. If not, well there's always III.