Two Band's Accuse Each Other Of Theft Of A Song

Angerkill guitarist/vocalist, David Diaz de Leon, has made some serious allegations against local Austin/San Antonio band Evil United. The charge, copyright infringement. In a video statement put out yesterday, Angerkill's David states in a video post that they aren't looking for money, "all we really want is due credit, just the truth. We don't want a piece of their pie, we don’t need it."

The song came to Angerkill's attention a few weeks ago and David first figured it was a mistake and their was some logical explanation. “The first thing that I did was reach out to two members of Evil United. I told them they had some songs on their new CD about to be released that I had some concerns about. I asked them to hold off on their CD release so we could talk about this. Unfortunately I got back a response from one of them members that claimed we stole the music from them." From there, the lines of communication were lost.

But enough talking, lets hear the music! You can hear the intro to "Switchblade" by Angerkill here. The intro for Evil United's "Speak" can be found here. The main riff for the songs can be heard at this location for Angerkill, and this location for Evil United's version.

As you can hear, the songs are strikingly similar. Evil United recently released their version this year, with Angerkill releasing their version in 2009 but playing it live in 2001. Shortly following the release of Angerkill's album in 2009, the band went on hiatus and never had a chance to really push the album.

Rumour has it that a long standing riff between a member of Evil United and the ex Angerkill drummer, Frank Diaz DeLeon, is the reason behind the stolen song riffs. Before Franks stint in Uriel, he was in the Texas metal band Angerkill. Also a member of Uriel was John Valenzuela, who later went on to join Evil United. Alleged inappropriate actions by Frank towards that band member’s family is what lead to Franks disbandment and rejoining of Angerkill. Both bands come from the same scene. Angerkill is pretty much on hiatus at this point.

The Gauntlet is still awaiting a response from members of Evil United.

You can watch the entire statement from Angerkill here

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Tags:  Angerkill, Evil United, fight, copyright infringement 

Jason Fisher    September 30, 2011