Examples of Dream Theater's influences

6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence uses many of the same notes as Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh by Magma, although admittedly in a somewhat different order .

keiser willhelm wrote: The song Panic Attack off of Octavarium sounds too much like Muse for comfort. particularly in the lyrics and bass lines. straight off of Absolution. its a great cover song though

Can't agree with you. Not Panic Attack, but Never Enough sounds like one of the songs from Muse's Absolution. We all can notice giant Muse influence in recent Dream Theater's music, but it doesn't matter for me. I call it "quoting some stuff", not ripping by the way.

I agree with sleeper: those examples aren't even bad ones.  If Labrie is trying to mimic Roger Waters, he's doing a terrible job!  The only thing they have in common is that they like to sing out of their range, though unfortunately Labrie holds his  notes forever.

One that I always noticed is the similarity between Repentance and most of Opeth's Damnation album--but I like both!

I also agree with MikeEnRegalia as well.  DT's wearing their influences on their sleeves is fine by me, and it actually makes the music more interesting in many places (the Rush nod in Dance of Eternity).  What bothers me is just playing the same old fast arpeggios ad nauseum--and that aspect is almost uniquely DT.

I have no problem with bands taking inspiration from other bands, but it feels like after Falling Into Infinity DT ran out of semi-original ideas of their own. They then moved on ripping more bands off and mindless shredding.

^ that's the great thing about music ... although most things have been done before bands keep coming up with fresh and original material. It's because you can combine all these things which have been done before in so many ways. Combined with inspired songwriting and excellent musicianship this can result in many more masterpieces being released ...

I don't even mind the obvious plagiarism in the latest DT releases ... the real problem is that their songwriting appears to have hit an all time low. It's still rock solid, but nowhere near their former masterpieces ...

You left out a significant one:

_The bass riff (and the guitar riff) in "Home" seem to come from the bass riff in Tool's "forty-six & two", even its variation is like Tool's. The moment when it's identical is at 5:15.

A few others I noticed:
_The bass riff in "This Dying Soul" and "Repetance" are also somewhat similar to "46 & 2" but not as much.
_"The great Debate" sounds way too much like Tool.




Edited by Zitro - March 01 2008 at 11:33

toolis wrote: their last album opens like The Spirit Of Radio by Rush opens...

Yes, reportedly they even used some of the chords which Rush used in that song.


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - March 01 2008 at 07:38

keiser willhelm wrote: The song Panic Attack off of Octavarium sounds too much like Muse for comfort. particularly in the lyrics and bass lines. straight off of Absolution.

Add "Never Enough" (Stockholm Syndrome) and "Prophets of War" (Take a Bow) to that list. As an aside, Prophets of War was my second favourite song off that album.

This thread will survive as long as it remains constructive. Unfortunately, there is a history of such discussions quickly going pear shaped, so don't be surprised if it ends up that way.

p0mt3 wrote:   Rudess at one point in the same song hit an organ chord that is ripped straight out of "Brain Damage".

A single chord ... I don't think that this can be called plagiarism or "rip-off". Most artists steal elements from other artists ... IMO it's a thing which cannot be avoided. Even highly experimental albums like the Fantomas debut can be called rip-offs - it only depends on whether you know the source (in that case: John Zorn, and he probably had other Free-Jazz artists as influences).

But I agree that Dream Theater - especially on Octavarium and Systematic Chaos - are mimicing other artists a bit too obviously.


Edited by MikeEnRegalia - March 01 2008 at 05:14