At this morning’s Microsoft press conference, Kai Huang, creator of Guitar Hero, took a few moments to talk to the assembly about Guitar Hero: World Tour’s upcoming debut. While Huang briefly mentioned the touch neck guitar and new drums, the focus of his talk was mainly concerned with the new music, particularly major bands coming over to the Guitar Hero label.

Huang stated that World Tour would feature over 85 songs on the disc, all of which will be master recordings from the original artists. He went on to state that REM will be releasing three tracks from their upcoming album as DLC at launch.

Do your tastes happen to run more toward the heavy metal side? Well in that case, you’ll be happy to hear that Metallica will be releasing their new album in its entirety as DLC later this fall, first on Guitar Hero 3, and then again on World Tour. We haven’t yet heard if the DLC can be transferred from GH 3 to World Tour, but considering the fact that no other songs will be forward compatible you may not want to hold your breath.