Grindcore band Terrorizer formed here, and their 1989 debut World Downfall was extremely influential. After 2006's reunion album Darker Days Ahead guitarist Jesse Pintado passed away, but the rest of Terrorizer has a new album, Hordes Of Zombies, out February 28th.

Now weirdly, and out of nowhere, an unknown Canadian grindcore group called Collapse has filed is threatening to file a plagiarism lawsuit against them and their label, Season of Mist, claiming a passage in Terrorizer's song “Subterfuge” is lifted from a Collapse song titled “Mechanisms Of Oppression.” We call bullshit.

First off, Collapse's guitarist/vocalist Jason McKenzie has been sending around press releases, claiming that if the release of Terrorizer's new album isn't canceled, they'll sue. It reeks of a publicity stunt; still, that in itself doesn't mean there isn't validity to their claims.

So listen yourself. The relevant segments are 0:28-0:45 of “Subterfuge” (above) and 1:48-forward of “Mechanisms Of Oppression,” below.

We listened to them a bunch of times and, frankly, all we hear are similar chord progressions that are commonplace within grindcore and death metal. This isn't exactly reeking of Coldplay vs. Joe Satriani. This is more like if Milton Berle sued every television show that featured a man in drag.

McKenzie has been chatting with metal websites, and only making their potential suit seem more ridiculous in the process. To wit:

As well, the cover artwork for [Terrorizer's Hordes of Zombies] resembles our album. With the Moon in background, with destroyed buildings, and destroyed automobile in the foreground…If this were a publicity stunt, it is Season of Mist and Terrorizer not Collapse and Forward Regression who are creating the controversy. By coping (sic) our album art and lifting riffs directly off our album.

law logo2x bYup, both album covers look soooooooooo much alike.

Indeed, the moon and destroyed buildings are concepts originated by Collapse. Not to mention that their cars look like rejects from the Gameboy version of Frogger.

Season of Mist's legal counsel said to metal blog Gun Shy Assassin that Collapse's claims are “frivolous, apocryphal, and devoid of any merit whatsoever.” We're inclined to agree, and look forward to the release of Terrorizer's Hordes of Zombies.

Correction: Originally, the story stated that Collapse's lawsuit has been filed. In fact, it has only been threatened.

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