Flaw Accused by Metal YouTuber of Plagiarizing His Song

Update, 2:41pm: Flaw vocalist Christopher Volz has responded to these plagiarism allegations. Read his response here.

Original Post:

At this point Flaw are probably best known as the band that Stephen Colbert hilariously goofed on, invited to appear on his show and gifted a $15,000 van. Not that Flaw were ever known for a whole lot… but if you were a metal fan in the ’90s and ’00s you’d probably at least heard of them.

But the late ’90s / early ’00s nu-metal stalwarts find themselves in the headlines again this week for a much less light-hearted reason: metal YouTuber Douglas Patrick has accused the band of blatantly plagiarizing one of his songs.

Back in 2016, The PRP tells us, Patrick posted a song idea titled “KoЯn style_Nu Metal/Rap Metal/Beat Instrumental 14” on his YouTube channel. Earlier this summer he was surprised to find out that Flaw lifted several ideas from that track pretty much verbatim on “Wake Up,” from their new album, Vol. IV Because Of The Brave. Posting a comment on Flaw’s official track, he said:

“These guys stole and plagiarized my music melody and structure. I will contact my lawyer to find out what to do. Search for ‘KoЯn style_Nu Metal/Rap Metal/Beat Instrumental 14.’”

You can listen to both tracks side by side below, and I’m sorry to say that it’s quite obvious several sections were blatantly plagiarized. We shouldn’t be surprised that a D-rate nu-metal band who never really made it, still struggle to get Midwest bar gigs and who ran such a cringe-worthy crowdfunding campaign that Stephen Colbert caught wind of it would resort to such dirty thievery and think they could get away with it… but yeah, I’m really not all that surprised. I hope Patrick brings them to court and takes them for all they’ve got, which sadly is probably just that van. Time for a Colbert follow-up story?