Hello Rocksmith fans and welcome to 2014! Hope you enjoyed your holidays.

Rocksmith 2014’s setlist has lots to choose from but often most people forget about the bonus tracks, or perhaps they haven’t unlocked them yet.

While in the previous game there were only six tracks (3 of them involving Seth Chapla) Rocksmith 2014 ups the ante with 11 tracks brought to you by various musical acts involved with the Ubisoft franchise.

Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Note: These 10 songs listed be can be unlocked by completing missions in Rocksmith 2014 or by completing songs in Score Attack.

Versus Them – Impossible Dreams

Versus Them returns to Rocksmith with a great tune that doesn’t disappoint when it comes to it’s riffs, melody, and solo. A recurring theme in 2014’s bonus songs if you notice will be tapping. Best get to work on that technique guitarists! The song doesn’t disappoint on bass either with it’s varied sections and heavy yet undistorted main riff.

If you enjoy the song you should let Matt know!

Ubisoft – Rocksmith 2012 Theme

Many will ask “why wasn’t this included in the original game?” well I think the techniques that 2014 added shown in the play-through videos say it all. Even though the song is under 2 minutes it’s definitely a favourite that will keep you coming back.

Sabaka – Monochromic

Well this song is certainly… Interesting. The time signature changes are all over the place and it definitely has this kind of My Bloody Valentine with some Tool thing going on for it. You’ll just have to see/hear it for yourself but it definitely surprised me.

Playground Kings – Self Trap

This song is pretty straightforward, I find the guitar lick to be kind of grating on the ears but the song is definitely fun to play and the bass line is definitely a winner.

Matt Montgomery, Brian McCune, Brendan West – On Top of the World

Just a beautiful song all around, has a real fab four feel right? One hopes that we can buy their album eventually.

Hail The Sun – Eight-Ball, Coroner’s Pocket

While I don’t think I’ll be mastering this song on guitar anytime soon it doesn’t subtract from how awesome it is on both guitar and bass. Would love to get more of their stuff or more post-hardcore type stuff in general.

Disonaur – Sea to Swallow

Nicholas Bonardi returns with a drastically different song in comparison to Rocksmith’s “Space Ostrich”. This is a cool song to rock out to and features an almost Morello-esque guitar solo (think Audioslave) complete with a tapping section. Is that Nick doing vocals as well? Hmm.

Crimson – Don’t Stop

If you hang out on twitter you for sure know all about Elisa’s band Crimson and her Rocksmith DLC streams! This song has a real Paramore feel to it with a pretty awesome solo as well. Check it out!

Bedowyn – Snarling of The Beasts

Here’s a nice little D-Standard Prog-Metal jaunt from one of the developers at Red Storm. Nothing too tricky here and it’s definitely a cool sounding song.

Aching Head – Self Destruct

Challenging to listen to and challenging to play, the final unlock will definitely give you a run for your money. For me, personally this is one of the greatest bonus songs ever… In any music game. I am a huge fan of Mr. Bungle so to have a bonus song that so closely resembles the type of feeling I get from Carry Stress in The Jaw… is quite amazing. It’s equally challenging on bass as you would expect for a song paying tribute to the work of Trey Spruance and Trevor Dunn. Mr. Bungle comparisons are definitely warranted as Jason Kocol (the man behind Aching Head) apparently used to run BungleFever!

For a really weird experience be sure to check out the Rhythm arrangement for the song 😉

Last month we asked our followers on twitter and some of the members of subreddit r/rocksmith what they thought of the bonus songs. Here is what they had to say:

@TheRiffRepeater Unlocked them all, somehow. Faves: Impossible Dreams, Don't Stop, and On Top of the World. Glad to see the RS1 theme, too. — Celes Chere (@celesgoesto11) December 15, 2013

@TheRiffRepeater SELF DESTRUCT 0/10 oh but ferreal On Top Of The World and Disonaur are absolutely excellent picks — Stephen Fenton (@BestFenton) December 15, 2013

@TheRiffRepeater Most of the songs are amazingly crafted but I don't like snarling of beasts.. LOVE impossible dreams, That solo is amazing — Noah Andrew (@NoahHoskins) December 15, 2013

@TheRiffRepeater unlocking items stopped at a point (bug).the last song was from sabaka,which i love,great mix of tool an my bloody valentin — scheppart (@scheppart) December 15, 2013

@TheRiffRepeater Cherub Rock was also UK pre order bonus.. and WOW I LOVE THE ROCKSMITH 2012 THEME — Ed Tanguy (@EdTanguy) December 15, 2013

[–]Beidah [+22] 4 points 19 days ago (4|0)

I think they did a great job at choosing the unlockable songs. I didn’t know I wanted to play [On Top of the World] til I tried it, and I only tried it out because I got a message saying it unlocked.The songs they chose for the bonus were all really great songs, but I don’t think many people would’ve ever listen to them if they were brought to their attention.[–]0blonsky [+4] 3 points 19 days ago (3|0) in contrast to rs1’s bonus songs, which i thought were all pretty good, 2014’s selection goes all over the love-hate spectrum for me. karawan’s desolate motion is definitely my favourite of all the bonus songs and i’m not even a ubisoft shill. i also like ‘impossible dreams’ and ‘self trap’. then there are six songs somewhere in the middle not bad but not that amazing either. well, and then there is post-hardcore ‘eight-ball, coroner’s pocket’ which is way too brvtal for me and i don’t like it. and there is ‘self-destruct’ which i really don’t understand. Have you unlocked and played all of the Rocksmith 2014 Bonus Songs? What’s your favourite? Let us know!

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