featured list Copy/Paste: Six Similar J-Rock Songs

[Zeus 7997]

 

Ever listen to a song and think to yourself that you've heard that melody somewhere before, but you can never place it? Alternatively, have you ever gotten into or read an argument with someone who says "x band copied y melody from z band"? I'm sure all of us have been there at one point and this is a topic that personally interests me. I like knowing where my artists source their inspiration from, and where their inspirations got their inspiration from, etc., because I believe that no idea is original but the interpretation can be. The subjectivity in how different artists hear and play back certain melodies is what makes music beautiful!

 

...and then there are times when bands just steal melodies and put no effort into it.

 

Today we take a look at six songs that can go either way. I provide examples,  where I think their origins stem from, and my final judgement. Sometimes it's hero worship. Sometimes it's laziness. Sometimes I just don't know. A lot of this was sourced from the "Inspirations..." thread I started a few years ago, but I also did a bit of legwork the last few months to cobble together my own examples. If you see a track here you pointed out somewhere before, odds are you helped me make this list!

Remember, these are only my opinions and based off what I can hear between two songs. I am not classically trained in music theory and I'm going purely by ear. You won't see me drop music theory knowledge anywhere in this post.

 

"Diabolic edict" by Ha;qch

stems from "Black Valor" by The Black Dahlia Murder

"When The Last Grave Has Emptied" by The Black Dahlia Murder

"Elder Misanthropy" by The Black Dahlia Murder

Homage or Copy: Frankenstein lives!

 

Quote

 

Odds are, unless you're one of the five tsunagari that went to their lives, you found this band via "Hell's Drawing". Odds are, you also picked up that omnibus for the ALSDEAD track and ignored everything else, because other than ALSDEAD there was nothing of value to be found. And to call their contribution "Filthy human' a beautiful shit" metal is a large, large stretch, but stay with me here. The name is pronounced as hakuchi, but I find sneezing an acceptable substitute because either way no one will know who you are talking about. The way this band tried so hard to be The Black Dahlia Murder is absolutely hilarious, and the real treat is the live distributed CD "diabolic edict", which is nothing more than a compilation of The Black Dahlia Murder songs! It's pretty obvious too, from the opening of Black Valor to the chorus, which is a straight 1:1 copy.

What's even more depressing is that "diabolic edict" is by far Ha;qch's best song out of the four they pressed to disk. Apparently they were popular at their live shows and in particular their vocalist was berserk, but I attribute that to twenty Japanese metal fans who don't listen to The Black Dahlia Murder, which is quite conceivable. Who know show many other melodic death metal songs they covered and re-arranged...
 

Final Judgement: What a crock of shit.

 

 

 

 

intro of "diabolic edict"

 

 

verses of "diabolic edict"

 

 

Chorus of "diabolic edict"

 

 

 

 

 

"セラフ。" by KILLANETH

stems from "DECADANCE - Counting Goats ... if I can't be yours -" by MEJIBRAY

"go ahead" by girugämesh

Homage or Copy: c-c-c-COPY...but every band has to start somewhere

 

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This is the type of derivative metalcore that fills out the base of the visual kei pyramid - and I am using "derivative" in the most literal sense possible here. girugämesh and MEJIBRAY should be flattered that their music has become influential enough to act as blueprints for a newer band, but one cannot simply rip one of the most badass girugämesh riffs in recent memory and get away with it. The chorus is a much more subtle example, but with enough listens one can hear echoes of the chorus from DECADANCE - Counting Goats ... if I can't be yours -. I'm more willing to forgive the second than the first, but both of their inclusions force me to conclude that this song is just a regurgitation of music we've literally already heard.  セラフ。is a cool and energetic song sure to gain them some quick fans...but only because girugäbray came up with the template first. For all of that, go listen to either one of those bands. I'm cool with KILLANETH becoming the next girugämesh of the scene, but only if they can come up with their own riffs.

Final Judgement: You only get one "Get Out Of Jail Free" card and you already used it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Summer Funeral" by SIGH

stems from "Opening Theme ~ Bombing Mission" by Nobuo Uematsu

Homage or Copy: Definitely a nod towards the veteran composer himself.

 

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In what is possibly the most subtle case of hero worship in Japanese black metal, veterans SIGH are complete nerds for weaving in a classic Nobuo Uematsu theme to their song "The Summer Funeral" and I love it. Anyone that's played five minutes of FFVII will note the similarities of the organ interlude around the two minute mark. What makes this such an effective sample is how understated it is; for as similar as the two themes are, SIGH's interpretation was tweaked to fit the mood and interlude and Mirai's rasp at the crescendo is even more dramatic than the original! When I think of black metal and video game music, the first thing that jumps to mind is the infamous "Alt lys er svunnet hen" and "Sorgens kammer" fiasco involving Dimmu Borgir and a little-known side scroller shoot-em-up named Agony. In this case, the similarity is more of a homage rather than a blatant rip-off.

Final Judgment: Recycling melodies done right!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"道化ノ華" by アルルカン (ARLEQUIN)

stems from "zombie" by Versailles

Homage or Copy: Smells like a copy to me but can go either way

 

 

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I like アルルカン a lot - they're probably one of the new visual kei bands I like the most - but this is inexcusable. The plagiarism in "道化ノ華" reminds me of that time when I forgot I had an earth science term paper due, so I paraphrased a few paragraphs from a few websites and an outdated encyclopedia in ten minutes. You can jumble around parts of songs all you want, but that doesn't mask those parts any better. Just because Aki moves the verse up eight measures doesn't mean that I'm deaf I own a copy of NOBLE too, guys. Ironically enough, the only parts of "道化ノ華" I like are all the parts influenced by "zombie" = the chorus is the literal definition of plateauing at the climax. There's enough nuance in the rhythm and strumming of the guitar to avoid accusations of a straight 1:1 copy, but I would be wrong to claim this isn't super suspicious.

Final Judgement: Sits in that Dir en grey area between paraphrasing and plagiarism

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Black Butterfly" by A

stems from "Enter the Sandman" by Metallica

Homage or Copy: Sounds like a copy to me.

 

 

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I'm a Metallica fan. I have been since I was young and The Black Album is one of albums I grew up with. I also like A quite a lot and at one point they were my favorite band tearing up the scene. But I would be dishonest with myself if I said I couldn't hear "Enter the Sandman" in "Black Butterfly". The intro riff into the first eight bars sounds a littletoo Western, even for A. The evidence is the larger than life feeling I get from listening to A's rendition. Much like it's big brother song "Enter the Sandman", there's a grandiose feeling winding around the riffs metal enough to tear a stadium down. I'm willing to give "Black Butterfly" a pass because it's a legitimately good song when it decides to stand on its own legs, but they aren't fooling anyone by covering Metallica, least of all me.

Final Judgement: U. H. W: Unabashed Hero Worship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Amentia" by E'm～grief～

stems from "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" by Dimmu Borgir

"The Promise of Fever" by Cradle of Filth

"Shat Out of Hell" by Cradle of Filth

"Honey and Sulphur" by Cradle of Filth

Homage or Copy: A shameless mix of three black metal riffs

 

 

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This song is the most infamous example of blatant plagiarism in visual kei in the last decade and yet I can't find a suitable link on YouTube to display the fuckery. They were not a prolific band, having only released a total of 14 songs, their music is best described as a mix of industrial, gothic, and symphonic metal. I am 100% certain that "Amentia" got them into heaps of trouble and I personally believe this marked the start of E'm～grief～'s rapid decline. What makes this situation even more depressing is that E'm～grief～ is still one of the most interesting and creative indie visual kei bands of the last decade, and it's not like they were pushed as hard as other bands in the scene, so I don't know why they resorted to this.

Let's first examine the timeline so I can explain my conjecture about their disbandment. E'm～grief～ started in 2008 and had an aggressive release schedule...up until this single. 「In paradism」 was released a month after - probably because of a label deal worked out prior - but then we didn't hear from them for almost a year! Then they dropped one more single 「Atonality」, a collection album 「grief」, and disbanded. There's also a huge irony in that main composer Yuuze took one of the most iconic black metal melodies from Dimmu, who years ago got in trouble for stealing compositions of "Alt lys er svunnet hen" and "Sorgens kammer" from a video game and the song "Sacred Hour" respectively. No one kicked up much of a fuss outside of visual kei circles, but the situation plays out as if KISAKI quietly took the wind out of this band's sales by reducing their funding...which I actually don't blame him for.

I would chalk up the stolen Dimmu intro to ~influence~ if the rest of the song wasn't a mash of three Cradle of Filth songs. The only parts I would feel confident were written by E'm～grief～ would be the orchestral, frilly parts with the shitty compressed horns and the tin can drums that stitch the song together. I always felt that if you were going to steal any melody, at least steal one that fits with your aesthetic. For starters, the first fifteen seconds of the intro to "A Link To The Past" would have been a much better fit and easier to write off as a tribute.

Final Judgement:


 

 

 

 

 

Listen to the entire song.

 

 
The Intro to "Amentia"

 

 

Coincides with ~1:07 of "Amentia"

 

 

Coincides with ~2:37 of "Amentia"

 

 

~3:10 of "Amentia"

 

 

 

 

 

 

[inartistic 1151]

Don't disagree with the ARLEQUIN one, but I do think that “zombie song” is just a visual kei trope at this point (a la “that one jazz song”), so they could be ripping off any number of people  Off the top of my head, LIN's "Walking in the rain" (though that one came after Zombie), etc.

(I think the trend probably started from Marilyn Manson's "Beautiful People," right?)

 

Re: E'm, I had no idea that the rest of the song after the intro was stolen as well! Thanks for this thread hahaha

Edited July 29, 2016 by inartistic

[Takadanobabaalien 3607]

because other than ALSDEAD there was nothing of value to be found.

 

 

[Peace Heavy mk II 7200]

tbh I don't think Kisaki cared about the Dimmu stuff at all because he later stole the intro to an Anorexia Nervosa song to start off one of Lin's DVDs. 

 

 

Complete, talking out my ass inference: he knew E'm's audience was no where big enough that anyone would care except a handful of salty westerners, and that foresight was correct. Maybe knowing random European black metal bands is considered edgy and cool in Japan, and you assume that most people wouldn't know them, just as I assume no one here ('here' being relative to me) would know if an American band ripped of...idk... Penicillin. Kisaki has also blatantly copied other bands himself in the past, so I don't think stuff like this is as huge a concern to him as we may feel it should be.  

 

 

I'm surprised Dir en Grey's I'll vs. For Dear or Unknown...Despair...A Lost vs G isn't mentioned here, since those are examples are like 4 years apart from each other and were from the same scene.

 

 

For funsies, I recently mentioned this in the inspiration thread, but it's still so good to me. This band ripped off Madonna, but they at least made the song gawfy to "cover it up."

 

[Pretsy 1343]

Let's not forget the chain of "Because":

Original (2001):

 

"Tributes":

[filth_y 189]

No Dir en grey - Grieva or Gazette - Gossip comparsions  ? Maybe that wouldve been too obvious/too much.

Ha;qch's Edict totally agree, the problem is i like it way more than the original. But didnt know it copied more than just Elder Mysantropy, didnt know the TBDM other songs.

 

On a sidenote, it would be interesting to list all J-Rock Songs with the typical/most common structure in 70% of all todays vk songs chorus with the guitar playing like this or a small alteration or which song/band started with that:

 

e-------------------------------------------------------

b-------------------------------------------------------

g-------------------------------------------------------

d---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7-

a---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7-

D---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7--

(anyone knows what i mean with the guitar tab here?)

Heavy parts in the low chord region going up to typically 8 followed by 7 power chord.

 

Its so common it already feels necessary to me and if its missing some songs feel uncomplete (latest e.g. ARCHEMIs 崇拝 has the typically 0-1-3 stuff going on but misses the 8-7, which makes me feel something is missing listening to the song).

VK is so predictable since few (a lot?) of years, listening to a new song the first time i feel like i can already tell the next riff before its even coming. Just a handful of bands makes an exception to that.

[Zeus 7997]

2 hours ago, filth_y said:

On a sidenote, it would be interesting to list all J-Rock Songs with the typical/most common structure in 70% of all todays vk songs chorus with the guitar playing like this or a small alteration or which song/band started with that:

 

e-------------------------------------------------------

b-------------------------------------------------------

g-------------------------------------------------------

d---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7-

a---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7-

D---0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1-8-8-8-8-7-7-7-7--

(anyone knows what i mean with the guitar tab here?)

Heavy parts in the low chord region going up to typically 8 followed by 7 power chord.

Like I said I know nothing about musical theory (or guitar tabs). If you can find an example that starts with that structure I would be able to understand better.

[IGM_Oficial 1964]

I didn't know about "Douke no hana", since I never listened to "Zombie" o_o but I love this song so much ;-;

It reminds me that Pentagon made a reference to it on "Popcorn monster" lol

[blackdoll 907]

On 7/29/2016 at 3:06 AM, Carmelzors said:

Let's not forget the chain of "Because":

Spoiler

Quote

 

Original (2001):

 

 

"Tributes":

 

 

you almost had me, but as soon as i refreshed my memory, and they are different. It can be posted in the "Inspiration" - where does music find it?

if you wanted to get them the song pierrot used&upgraded would have been a tiny bit of a better choice because the songs dont travel far apart and keep that beat

 

 

 

Gear 4th luffy (or what end up being his strongest)

 

normal luffy from first meeting zoro (orginal)

Edited July 30, 2016 by blackdoll

[JamesR 119]

Hate to be that guy, but someone needed to mention Nocturnal Bloodlust.

 

I'm pretty sure they also copied a Suicide Silence song in 'Pleasure of Torture', can't remember which...

[Zeus 7997]

14 hours ago, Uglymouth said:

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry. I forgot Valluna was on it too. I actually forgot Valluna was a thing...

[IGM_Oficial 1964]

6 hours ago, JamesR said:

Hate to be that guy, but someone needed to mention Nocturnal Bloodlust.

 

I kinda think that it's a coincidence...

Or it's on the border between coincidence and copy... got me?

[Zeus 7997]

Could all future posts that link to videos please place them in the spoilers? With so many YouTube links it takes forever to load the topic. Thanks!

[Saishu 1589]

That ARCHEMI song sounds like something MUCC would have done 15 years ago. 

[Kuroha 65]

23 hours ago, JamesR said:

Hate to be that guy, but someone needed to mention Nocturnal Bloodlust.

 

I'm pretty sure they also copied a Suicide Silence song in 'Pleasure of Torture', can't remember which...

 

try this, dude !

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

another similiar song ~

 

Spoiler

 

 

and

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited July 30, 2016 by Kuroha

[Dillinger 258]

I love this topic. Haha.

 

I liked Em Grief's concept as a band. But the blatant rips left a bitter taste in my mouth.

 

How about Gazette's 'Shiver' and Lune Sea 'End of Sorrow'?

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Ito 2438]

I can't find a link for them, but Lond Boy's Siren takes heavily from the GazettE's Agony.

[blackdream 95]

Paranoid≠circuS just uploaded the short version of "Endless WaltZ", and I think it sounds similar to "Can you do it?" by NIGHTMARE. I also listened to the digest of "DREAM BOXX", and another song on their mini-album sounds just a bit like "体温-taion-" by the GazettE, based on the short audio clip.

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2016 by blackdream

[ぺるしゃ猫 67]

You guys should compare Viored's III Addiction's Child to Dir en grey's umbrella LOL
I have heard some bands have similar sounding choruses

eg. JUDE by RENTRER EN SOI and Empty Room by Sadie

 

[Pretsy 1343]

On 31/07/2016 at 5:33 PM, Dillinger said:

I love this topic. Haha.

 

I liked Em Grief's concept as a band. But the blatant rips left a bitter taste in my mouth.

 

How about Gazette's 'Shiver' and Lune Sea 'End of Sorrow'?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gazette has a nice record of similarity cases actually (no youtube links, just a few I can get out of my chest for now):

 

Spoiler

Defective Tragedy -> Luna Sea - FEEL

Ruder -> SADS - Liberation

Agony -> Limp Bizkit - Pollution  and Korn - Wicked (intro, whammy guitars)

Ogre -> Slipknot - Disasterpiece and Slipknot - People = Shit

Cassis -> Ryuichi Kawamura (Luna Sea's vocalist) - Sugar Lady

 

 

And that's just a small batch with obvious connections to Gazette's influences.

Edited August 4, 2016 by Alroy

[Saishu 1589]

You're going to find that a lot of VK bands have songs that sound similar to Luna Sea. 

 

Also, the opening riff to Gazette's "Rage" sounds like Slipknot's "People = Shit". 

[ぺるしゃ猫 67]

14 hours ago, Carmelzors said:

 

Gazette has a nice record of similarity cases actually (no youtube links, just a few I can get out of my chest for now):

 

  Hide contents

Defective Tragedy -> Luna Sea - FEEL

Ruder -> SADS - Liberation

Agony -> Limp Bizkit - Pollution  and Korn - Wicked (intro, whammy guitars)

Ogre -> Slipknot - Disasterpiece and Slipknot - People = Shit

Cassis -> Ryuichi Kawamura (Luna Sea's vocalist) - Sugar Lady

 

 

And that's just a small batch with obvious connections to Gazette's influences.

I'm totally going to listen to and compare these songs!

[pawzord 388]

 
it doesn't sound like gazettes vortex at all 

[Zeus 7997]

4 minutes ago, pawzord said:

 
it doesn't sound like gazettes vortex at all 

I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could pull together a list of Sadie. Just Sadie. Enough likes and I might think about it i dunno.

[pawzord 388]

Just now, Zeus said:

I'm sure if I tried hard enough I could pull together a list of Sadie. Just Sadie. Enough likes and I might think about it i dunno.

Lmao do it. I was like "why is Sadie not here yet?"