Wage War's Cody Quistad Clarifies The Similarities Between 'Low' And Architects' 'Doomsday'

When Wage War released their banger of a track 'Low' back in January, they were met with criticism and comments from fans who instantly pick up on similarities between their song and 'Doomsday' by fellow metalcore powerhouse band Architects. Both songs share very similar opening riffs and it had never been brought up in any interviews about how Wage War's song was similar in style and sound... until now!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvWbcK3YQ_o&w=640&h=360]

During an interview with our very own Ebony Story (who, mind you, is an absolute fan of both bands and both songs), she brought up the subject, just to see if Cody Quistad and co. were in some way shape or form aware of Architects' track before releasing their own, and/or if the band were an inspiration to Wage War.

As it turns out, Cody hadn't ever had this question asked of him before and was more than willing to share his side of the story and explain how it all came about, revealing:

Yeah, we definitely are Architects fans and this is actually the first time I’ve ever talked to anybody about this. So the story behind ‘Low’ is I wrote the riff a year before ‘Doomsday’ came out, so there was never at all a situation where someone was like, ‘here listen to this riff, lets do this and change the notes or change the beat’. I won’t lie and say that I’m not inspired by Architects, but the riff is fully original from my brain and was done before ‘Doomsday’ ever saw the light of day.

I’m a big fan of Tom Searle, rest in peace, and if my riff pays tribute to him I’m not going to be mad about that because he has absolutely been influential in who I’ve become as a guitar player. You know, I’ve never really given it too much attention, it’s a bummer but at some point with the way that heavy music works, there are going to be cross overs, whether it’s breakdown patterns or riffs, you know just because a riff is down tuned or tone filtered. But it is what it is. We’re Architects fans but that wasn’t a blatant rip, that was a riff that existed before that song ever came out.

So there you have it, another situation of a riff existing prior to another band releasing something similar first (we caught another situation of this earlier in the year when a US band released a track that was strangely familiar to a Void of Vision banger, our article has since been shelved after the band removed their song online and requested the piece be dropped, to which we happily obliged).

Hopefully, this clarifies any issues fans had with the track, which you have to admit, after that opening riff, opens up to be a stellar metalcore anthem. Give it a listen below and get keen on Wage War's new album Pressure, which comes out Friday (our review here).

Wage War – Pressure tracklisting

1. Who I Am
2. Prison
3. Grave
4. Ghost
5. Me Against Myself
6. Hurt
7. Low
8. The Line
9. Fury
10. Forget My Name
11. Take The Fight
12. Will We Ever Learn

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2d3EDNDCn8&w=853&h=480]