Shredder, steal thy self

There's a funny story behind these next 2 tracks. Blaze Tishko had demo'd off some new songs for what was to be In Cold Blood's follow-up to Hell On Earth (the greatest hardcore record of all time). For one reason or another, the project was disbanded, and only about 20 or so of these demos made their way around. Fast forward a few years and Blaze finds himself as Integrity's new lead guitarist. Never one to waste a good riff (or song) he re-works 2 complete In Cold Blood songs into Integrity songs for the album To Die For. Members of Integ have claimed they had no idea he did this, and were quite shocked when these In Cold Blood demo's got a proper release years later. Take a listen to the songs back to back.
In Cold Blood - Ease The Pain

Integrity - Lost Without You


In Cold Blood - Empty

Integrity - Burn It Down


[note from editor; Blaze Tishko is a fucking MONSTER writer/player. Make hardcore a better place by stealing riffs from Blaze]


And similar to the above story, when Clevo hate-edge pioneers Die-Hard disbanded, Aaron Melnick took a song with him when he co-founded Integrity. The Integ song is titled "Judgement Day", which puts a huge set of balls on the Die-Hard track "Absent"
Die-Hard - Absent

Integrity - Judgement Day



Pitboss 2000 had begun working on the follow up to Boobie Crew when JLJ decided to move to Cali and start Through It All. PB2K had continued without him simply as "Pitboss". With each party unaware of what the other was doing, they each dropped the same song (albeit with starkly different lyrics) on their respective albums.
Through It All - New Law

Pitboss - Towel-I-Ban


JLJ had also re-used two complete PB2K songs off Boobie Crew for Through It All, though I can't find the CD at the moment.

I gotta admit I don't know much about these next acts, but I'm told Pygmy Lush and PG.99 share members, which is why a similar song turned up on both their releases:
Pygmy Lush - Slave To A Teenager

PG. 99 - Living in the Skeleton of a Happy Memory


Of course these aren't the only examples. The first American Nightmare songs were one's Timbomb had written for Ten Yard Fight's follow-up to "The Only Way". This isn't a practice exclusive to hardcore, either. The first Slash's Snakepit record, and Duff Mckagan's "Man in the Meadow" were songs Axl Rose rejected for the album that would ultimately become Chinese Democracy. And without posting two dozen mp3's, Dave Mustaine took more than his share of riffs and songs with him when he left Metallica (most notably Mechanix v. Four Horsemen).

We learn a few things from these; if you write a good song don't let it being previously released cause it to go to waste, and we also see what a difference a backing band and vocal melody can make to the same exact song.

Waste not, want not.

MY BROTHERS! WE'RE ONE IN THE SAME!

This next post hearkens back to the ealry days of hardcore, when E natural minor was as heavy as it got. The common consensus is that this next riff was actually originated by Discharge, but I'll be referring to it as the "Chunks riff". A simple E-G-F# using down-strokes, some heavy mid-tempo drumming and you got yourself a jam.

This clip contains the following songs:
Discharge - Protest and Survive
Last Rights - Chunks
L.A. Guns - Sex Action
H.T.D. - Toxic Hobos
Urban Blight - Leech
Life's Blood - Never Make A Change
Cold Stare - Words in Your Mouth
Beautiful Creatures - 1AM



With a riff used this much, it's hard to know who was ripping off what. The only one I can confirm as blatant is "Toxic Hobos". I wrote it, and I definitely said "I'm just gonna use that riff from Chunks"

On this next pair, I can quite pin down a stolen riff, but the over all structure and feel of the song are identical. When you hear it, you know it's Chunks.
Last Rights - Chunks

Knife Fight - Burning Bridges Pt. 1



This next one has nothing to do with Chunks, but how many other chances am I going to get to talk about L.A. Guns on a hardcore blog (well, they do have that hardcore record, but anyways), Traci Guns openly admits to having stole the riff from Motley Crue' "Wild Side" for L.A. Guns' "Electric Gypsy". Check them out back to back:


Legend has it, he wrote that track on a old bass that was laying around a crack house. Now that's hardcore.

Because one riff just isn't enough

Occasionally a song will come along that you like so much, you just gotta steal the whole thing, and that's what this next post deals with.

First up, we have a couple intros. Count Me Out's "Two" off their album 110, vs. Damage Control's "Intro II" off What It Takes. Due to the similar titles, I can only assume this was a good natured nod to Count Me Out, though I haven't confirmed this with Damage Control. But Just take a listen:
Count Me Out - Two

Damage Control - Intro II



Ringworm making their second appearance on Riffcycle with their song "I Can See" off Birth Is Pain, which is actually an old Pitboss 2000 intro. In all fairness, Ringworm did give JLJ a song writing credit on this one, and Malcom X (of PB2K) had stolen it to begin with. It's actually just a reworked version of the Stone Cold Steve Austin Entrance music. Ringworm does it better, if I do say so myself (but that's true of everything in life).
Pitboss 2000 - Intro/Anthem

Ringworm - I Can See


Ringworm reworks another intro into a song of their own on their debut The Promise, this time it's an old Integrity intro. And once again, Ringworm gives proper writing credit. A classier bunch of guys their never was.
Integrity - Rated X

Ringworm - Numb



Steal big or go home.

It's Time To Pay, you Dumpster Junkies!

I'm absolutely elated with the amount of attention this blog is getting. Well over 1000 views in under 12 hours. And today we're fortunate enough to have Mr. Benny B-Roll of Have Heart and Death Before Dishonor share some of his lifted riffs with us.

In contrast to the last post, Ben takes a bit more subtle approach to his stolen riffs, changing them up slightly and putting his own twist on them. And with Have Heart and Death Before Dishonor as proof, our lesson learned today is; no matter how many hardcore kids hear your songs, no one will notice you stole some riffs. Have Heart did the largest tour in hardcore history, and yet, not a single call-out. Riff-lifting is an art. And here's some examples and tips from Benny,

"I have one for you. When I was in Have Heart I took the song Young Hearts Be Free by GUTG (Give Up The Ghost) and turned it into Dig Somewhere Else. Just the beginning part though and I slowed it down."

Take a listen to these riffs back to back. You probably wouldn't have noticed until he mentioned it. A sign of a good theft:



He goes on to point out that the main riff of Death Before Dishonor's "Fuck This Year" is the breakdown riff of Ministry's "Psalm 69". Check it out:


Any advice for the young folk out there looking for riffs to steal, Benny?

"First, I masked it pretty well by being in a completely different tuning. Basically what I did was listened to a riff I really liked, and being in a different tuning it's obviously not gonna sound the same...so I played the riff how I thought it would be played without figuring out exactly how it's really played. If you do that and don't play it exactly, then it will be slightly different enough to not be a total rip. (I hope that all made sense.) Then just make it slower or faster depending on what you wanna do. Then the drums/vocals/etc will take care of the rest."

There you have it, some tips from a professional, and proof you can get to the top of the hardcore world on someone else's riff.

Thanks Ben!

Steal loud, steal proud...

Sometimes when stealing a riff you might want to change it up a bit and make it your own, but sometimes (as todays post shows), you don't even have to bother.

Here's are 2 selections from now-defunct MVHC's Gun's Up. Their song "Won't Change For Me" contains a spot-on jack of the breakdown in Entombed's "Demon", but they don't stop there, they also lift the breakdown of Megadeth's "The Conjuring" for their song called "Face It".

In researching this post, it seems that Guns Up had gotten the OK from Entombed to use this (never a bad practice in the riff-lifting world) so we know for sure this lift was intentional. I'm not positive if the Megadeth riffcycle was on purpose, but you can let your ears decide.

Listed to Entombed's "Demon" followed by Guns Up "Won't Change For Me", then Megadeth's "The Conjuring" back-to-back with Guns Up's "Face It"

"Hey guys, check out this siqqq intro I wrote!"

This collection of riffcycles was compiled by poster "Believe" of theb9.com. It's a collection of song intros that are surprisingly similar. I can't say for sure if any of these riff-thefts were intentional, but either way, it reinforces the ideals of this blog. Basically, you might as well just steal riffs, because whatever you write is just going to sound like something else.

The following clip has bit's of the following songs in this order:

Carry On - Roll With The Punches
Pledge - Socially Accepted Addictions
Ten Yard Fight - The Only Way
Know The Score - Safety In Numbers
Donnybrook - Read Em And Weep
Down To Nothing - Choke Louder
Internal Affairs - Internal Affair
Lights Out - No Greater Distance
Panic - Distance
Some Kind of Hate - Calling All Bastards





Not sure who wrote it first, but since they're the oldest clip in here, here's to you TYF!

"No one's as ugly as the singer from Bane..."

This next riffcycle comes from Pitboss' (NOT Pitboss 2000) debut Told Her Twice. Pitboss 2000 will surely be covered extensively in the life of this blog, because as I said before JLJ and I were shameless with our riff-lifting. But rather than come out with all that right away, I thought I'd give it a bit of variety and start with this.

Dustin Hysell (Under One Flag, PB2K) who serves up many a steal-able riff of his own, jacks a bit of a track off Sacto Hoods' Citrus Heights for the song "Bane-ario". If you're looking for riffs to steal, look towards Mikey Hood. He's truly one of the all-time greats when it comes to old-style hardcore, and just song arrangements as a whole.

Listen to Hoods, followed by the Pitboss cut here:



Yet again, this one comes out of Ohio. Seems to be a pattern forming...

Worm-Ensemble

Another great riffcycle coming out of Cleveland. And another off a genre-defining and ground breaking record, Ringworm's The Promise.

The song of topic is "Necropolis", and well, let's let founding Ringworm guitarist Frank "3gun" (renown for his work with Terror, Hatebreed, Integrity and Pitboss 2000) explain it himself:

"Speed up the opening riff and you've got "War Ensemble" by Slayer, it's not brain surgery kids!"

Listen here to the riff from War Ensemble, followed by Ringworm's take on it:

The Murdario Stomp

I'm a firm believer in kicking off every set with a huge mosh intro, and in the history of hardcore nothing has ever come close to comparing to One Life Crew's Murdario Stomp. SO that's why I'm leading off the blog with it.

This track was written in '94 (originally titled "The Neighborhood Stomp") by Mr. Blaze Tishko, who was essentially the creator of the Clevo sound, and responsible for heavy hardcore as a whole. His style was unheard of at the time, relying heavily on the Lydian mode with a flat forth (for you less theory-savvy players; E-F-G#. The Holy Trio of hardcore riffs). So how did he come up with this style of playing? The same place everyone from Cleveland got their chops; Bay Area Thrash.

Blaze was never shy about letting you know where he got a riff from. The Murdario Stomp is a note-for-note jack of the intro of Exodus' "Like Father, Like Son"

But that Exodus riff wasn't quite done getting around. Aside from the Stomp being covered hundreds of times by as many bands, Boston heavyweights Proclamation added a portion of it to their epic Bridge 9 Records full-length "Taken By Force", as a build up to the mosh on the track "Closed Mind". However, Mark (Proclamation's singer) tells me they weren't familiar with the Exodus track, but it was intentially a bite of The Stomp. So we have a bit of a game of telephone going on with this riff.

The following clip is the original riff by Exodus, The Crime Ridden Society version of the One Life Crew riffcycle, and lastly, Proclamation's take on it.

Why a blog on lifting riffs?

I decided to start this blog because stealing riffs is something everyone does, intentionally or not. Some people are hush-hush about it, as if it means you're a bad person or something, while others have no problem giving credit to where they jacked a riff from.

A number of years ago, John Lockjaw (Pitboss 2000/One Life Crew/PC Deathsquad) gave me one of the greatest pieces of advice I ever received about songwriting. While I never really struggled with song-writing, early on, it wasn't really my strong suit. But after I met JLJ all that changed when he gave me this bit of sage-like wisdom; "You can bust your ass trying to write a new riff, and at the end it's just going to sound like whatever you were listening at the time. Just take the riff from the sound you're going for. No one will notice"

He was right. He and I would write songs on AIM like this. Just like "Ok, take the intro from this song, tack on this verse. then play the mosh part from this song." It seemed too easy at first. I couldn't believe no one would know, but we never got called out. Every song I've written since has at least one riff of someone else's in it. And whether it's intentional or not, every song you wrote (or heard) has a bit of someone else's riff in it. There's nothing new under the sun.

This blog will focus mainly on songs where the writer openly admits that they stole the riff (or at least where the riff is so obvious it needed pointing out). There's nothing malicious about this blog. I'm not calling anyone out or insulting them. This is more-or-less a demonstration on how to steal a riff right, and maybe to open your eyes to some other/older music you may not have heard (at least in it's original non-stolen form).

I hope you enjoy this, and if you have any suggestions on songs and riffs that should be included, feel free to pass them along. And if anyone wants to turn themselves in, I can post it and you can remain anonymous.

on to the riffage!