Guitarist Christian Münzner Accuses Obscura of Even More Apparent Plagiarism

Just when you thought the initial story was bad enough, we’re back with an update from yet another former Obscura member that’s calling out his former band for allegedly stealing music. In a recent post on his Facebook page, ex-Obscura guitarist Christian Münzner called out guitarist/vocalist Steffen Kummerer — who I’m pretty sure he hilariously referred to as “Mr. Tech Death Genius” — for lifting his riffs for the forthcoming album A Sonication. Just so everyone’s clear, that’s the record that’s supposed to becoming out on February 7.

Münzner’s comments echo those made last week by other ex-Obscura members Max Phelps and Alex Weber, in which all three individuals said they either told Kummerer the music they’d written was not to be used for any future release or they’d been given assurances as such. However, upon hearing the new record, Münzner and his contemporaries were each surprised to hear their music in the final product.

“I just heard more of the new Obscura. There are riffs I had written and was guaranteed would not be used, and they are being used 1:1, note for note, stolen, copied, as well as entire song structures. Mr. Tech Death Genius strikes again I would say. If Nuclear Blast releases this they are thiefs [sic] as well. I will not let this slide and explore every legal avanue [sic]. There are limits to how much shit we should tolerate. These songs were intended for a solo EP I was planning to do after the Obscura split, now I can not do this anymore. This can not go on. Especially if we ‘agree to disagree’ because of creative differences and then you use other peoples work, after you say we are not on the same page what we want musically?”

That last bit is particularly hard to square. If the members were let go because of creative differences, then why would Kummerer decide to use that music? Doesn’t make any sense.

I’d reached out to Nuclear Blast to find out if they had any response to the plagiarism allegations, but hadn’t heard back at all. Likewise with this post, I once again reached out to see if there will be a response before the album’s release. This sort of thing seems like it would be a nightmare for a record label that’s already committed time, money, and resources to the promotion of a new album.

We’ll see who this all pans out but at the very least, it sounds like we’re on the precipice of a legal dispute, ladies and gentlemen.