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.