DID KALMAH RIP OFF PANTERA?

Axl’s been devoting a lot of e-ink to Kalmah‘s new album 12 Gauge with good reason — because it’s fucking awesome. I’d completely forgotten how awesome Kalmah were until Axl sent me a copy of the new album. A few notes of epic, doomy melodeth later I exclaimed “ohhhh yeah! Kalmah!” then I sparked up a doob and let the music do the talking. For the unfamiliar, if you like dark, doomy Scandinavian music like Insomnium and Swallow the Sun there’s a good chance you’ll like Kalmah (who’ve been doing it for way longer) though their brand is less gloomy and more energetic than the aforementioned bands.

So over the weekend MS Maniac Mike Winston sends us an email comparing the intro of 12 Gauge‘s fifth song “Better Not to Tell” and the classic Pantera track “Hollow.” And I gotta say, he’s onto something; the two intros are eerily similar. I definitely don’t blame Kalmah for biting Pantera, though, and I’m sure all of you musicians out there can relate: how many times have you worked on writing a new song for hours and hours only to realize afterwards that the song (or parts of it) is actually already a famous song that you subconsciously copied? My guess is that the same thing happened here only Kalmah never realized it. Either way the song still kicks ass and the similarities stop after the intro so Big Vin better not sue.

Listen to the two clips below and let us know what you think.

-VN