Dio, Morrisey and The Smiths Come to Rock Band

MTV Games and Harmonix have announced that the new downloadable content for their Rock Band series will include tracks from Dio and The Smiths, two of the bands that will headline the launch of the upcoming Rock Band 3, which is set to arrive on October 26 in North America and three days later in Europe.

Dio will offer two songs, “Holy Diver” and “Stand Up and Shout”, both taken from the first album the band put out.

Ronny James Dio is one of the most recognizable voices in hard rock and launched 10 studio albums with his band before losing his battle with cancer.

Another great voices who debuts in the Rock Band Music Store is Morrisey, who is contributing “Irish Blood, English Heart” from the album “You Are the Quarry”, launched in 2004.

And fans of the artist will be able to get more of him with a song from The Smiths, the band he fronted in the '80's, called “The Charming Man”, the second single they ever released in 1983.

This weeks DLC will also include the track “Nirvana” from Juliana Hatfield, her first solo effort after The Blake Babies disbanded.

Silverchair will contribute “Straight Lines” from the album “Young Modern” while Underoath completes the pack with their song “Writing on the Walls”.

All the offered tracks are master recordings and will be available on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.

This is also the first week when the Nintendo Wii platforms gets Rock Band Network tracks, like: Drowning Pool with “Bodies”, Band of Skulls with “I Know What I Am”, Third Eye Blind playing “Semi-Charmed Life '09” and Lacuna Coil with “Survive”.

Harmonix is at the moment also working on creating Dance Central for the Kinect motion tracking system, designed to completely simulate the experience of gaming.