This DREAM THEATER Song Reminds Me of...

[chaossystem]

Let's have a little fun here...

There a certain DT songs that put me in mind of other bands or artists, even other SONGS.

I'll give a few examples to start us out, and hope to see LOTS of others on here...

-Surrounded makes me think of more "pop"-sounding prog bands such as Styx and Asia

-6:00, to me is kind of Deep Purple Style. Actually makes me think of "Space Trucking" for some reason.

-A Change of Seasons, the way I hear it, is like a much heavier version of Yes's "Close to the Edge."

-Wait For Sleep, The Silent Man, Hollow Years and some of their other ballads are like some of ELP's songs, such as "lucky Man" and "From the Beginning."

-Trial of Tears and Repentance make think of Kansas. Repentance seems very similar to "On the Other Side." And ToT reminds me a bit of "Carry On Wayward Son."

-The Count of Tuscany and Enigma Machine are two really good examples of their Rush influence.

...you get the idea, so let's HEAR some!

[KevShmev]

This could be a long thread...

The beginning of Surrounded sounds like Queen's Father to Son.

The heavy riff near the end of Peruvian Skies sounds like Enter Sandman.

JLB's hushed vocals during the first verse of The Spirit Carries On are very Roger Waters-esque circa The Wall.

The Looking Glass riff sounds like the riff from Rush's Limelight bent into a pretzel.

The Best of Times piano intro sounds very much like Elton John's Funeral for a Friend, and the guitar part that comes in around 2:50-ish is very The Spirit of Radio-ish (Rush again).

Octavarium has about 39 parts that sound like other bands.

The intro to Trial of Tears sounds like a combination of Rush's Xanadu (some of the drum fills are nearly identical to those in Xanadu) and Styx's Mr. Roboto (the keys).

The intro to Endless Sacrifice sounds very Welcome Home (Sanitarium)-esque.

The list goes on.

[bl5150]

Creeping Constant Motion sounds vaguely like Metallica.

[bosk1]

The intro to Endless Sacrifice sounds very Welcome Home (Sanitarium)-esque.

I had to read that sentence like four times because, although I agree, I was certain you were going to say it sounds like:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0 

[Train of Naught]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0 sounds like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikSPzB-I_W4

[KevShmev]

The intro to Endless Sacrifice sounds very Welcome Home (Sanitarium)-esque.

I had to read that sentence like four times because, although I agree, I was certain you were going to say it sounds like:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0 

I figured I'd let someone else throw that one out.

[Crow]

Lost Not Forgotten reminds me of Under A Glass Moon.
It makes me stop listening to it and put on Under A Glass Moon instead.
Because why would you listen to a bad retread of a good song, when you can listen to the good song instead?

[425]

I say this all the time, and almost no one believes me, but the beginning of Peruvian Skies pretty much IS the beginning of Bleeding Me by Metallica. Everyone wants to make the Have a Cigar comparison, and it is there, but the similarity to Bleeding Me is perhaps even more striking.

[wolfking]

I say this all the time, and almost no one believes me, but the beginning of Peruvian Skies pretty much IS the beginning of Bleeding Me by Metallica. Everyone wants to make the Have a Cigar comparison, and it is there, but the similarity to Bleeding Me is perhaps even more striking.

I can see where you are coming from, it's faster but similar notes and same guitar tone too which helps.  I wouldn't say it's the same but can see the similarities.


This Dying Soul and Noose by Ark are very reminiscent of each other.

[erwinrafael]

The rhythm in The Pursuit if Truth reminds me of Conversation Piece by Savatage.

[TheCountOfNYC]

The end of The Dance of Eternity sounds like Rush's Freewill.

[erwinrafael]

And Trial of Tears is Xanadu. Espevially the BTFW version.

[Siddhartha]

Forsaken is Evanescense.

Ilumination Theory is Tchaikovsky piano concierto n1

[Rodni Demental]

A few parts of Learning to Live remind me of Heart of the Sunrise by Yes.

[AboutToCrash]

The Surrounded intro is IDENTICAL, I mean absolutely IDENTICAL to Symphony X's Through The Looking Glass intro!

[RoeDent]

The beginning of The Glass Prison sounds a lot like the end of Dream Theater's Finally Free.

[Train of Naught]

I really hope you meant The Shattered Fortress, otherwise, I have some bad news for you.

EDIT: Nevermind, stupid me

[OpenYourEyes311]

The guitar part of The Killing Hand when the vocals first come in reminds me of the opening story part of the NES game Blaster Master.

Similarly, Goodnight Kiss reminds me of the opening to Ocarina of Time.

[BlobVanDam]

Similarly, Goodnight Kiss reminds me of the opening to Ocarina of Time.

I'd never heard that one before, but I can see a bit of similarity. The Overture has always reminded me of Ocarina of Time, so I like this comparison.

[Train of Naught]

Enigma Machine's main riff sounds like the Inspector Gadget theme song.

[Stadler]

The Surrounded intro is IDENTICAL, I mean absolutely IDENTICAL to Symphony X's Through The Looking Glass intro!

Since it came out 6 years later, wouldn't the Symphony X song be "IDENTICAL, I mean absolutely IDENTICAL" to Surrounded?

On that note, though, I always thought the second half of "Learning To Live" was very Rush-like, though I can't place a specific song.

"Take The Time" has a part that sounds exactly like "Dancin' Fool" by Zappa.

[T-ski]

Solitary Shell/Solsbury Hill

[Kotowboy]

Lost Not Forgotten reminds me of Under A Glass Moon.
It makes me stop listening to it and put on Under A Glass Moon instead.
Because why would you listen to a bad retread of a good song, when you can listen to the good song instead?

Maybe some people PREFER Lost Not Forgotten ?

[Kotowboy]

Which is the riff that sounds like a Michael Jackson song ?

I *think* It's Give In To Me but I forgot.


Edit : haha it's definitely Endless Sacrifice

[Kotowboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ7qXHjxj_0 sounds like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikSPzB-I_W4

Ninja'd

[Outcrier]

Bridges in the Sky (7:15) reminds me of Final Fantasy 8 "The Landing" AKA Dollet Theme invasion (0:51).

[chaossystem]

This could be a long thread...

The beginning of Surrounded sounds like Queen's Father to Son.

The heavy riff near the end of Peruvian Skies sounds like Enter Sandman.

JLB's hushed vocals during the first verse of The Spirit Carries On are very Roger Waters-esque circa The Wall.

The Looking Glass riff sounds like the riff from Rush's Limelight bent into a pretzel.

The Best of Times piano intro sounds very much like Elton John's Funeral for a Friend, and the guitar part that comes in around 2:50-ish is very The Spirit of Radio-ish (Rush again).

Octavarium has about 39 parts that sound like other bands.

The intro to Trial of Tears sounds like a combination of Rush's Xanadu (some of the drum fills are nearly identical to those in Xanadu) and Styx's Mr. Roboto (the keys).

The intro to Endless Sacrifice sounds very Welcome Home (Sanitarium)-esque.

The list goes on.

You can make your POSTS as long as you want to.

-I think the musical references to Pink Floyd and Metallica in Peruvian skies was intentional. It also reminds me a little of some of the early Black Sabbath songs, such as "Iron man" and "War Pigs."

-A LOT of people have said that The Looking Glass sounds like Rush's "Limelight." I don't seem to hear it as much as other people do. But it does have a vaguely Rush "vibe" to it.

-I think Octavarium was intentionally a tribute to a lot of British prog bands, such as Pink Floyd, Yes, and especially Genesis.

-I also think that Trial of Tears, especially at the beginning (intro) was strongly inspired by Rush's "Hemispheres."

[chaossystem]

Lost Not Forgotten reminds me of Under A Glass Moon.
It makes me stop listening to it and put on Under A Glass Moon instead.
Because why would you listen to a bad retread of a good song, when you can listen to the good song instead?

Maybe some people PREFER Lost Not Forgotten ?

I don't know about "prefer," but I like both songs, and I DON'T think that LNF is a "bad retread" of UaGM; I think they are two entirely DIFFERENT songs.

[425]

I agree with you, chaossystem. I like UAGM better, but I like LNF too, and though there are some striking similarities in song structure, I don't see LNF as a retread.

[Setlist Scotty]

Forsaken is Evanescense.

While I agree that Forsaken does sound like Evanescense, when I first heard the song, I actually thought it sounded kinda like a combination of Dio-era Sabbath meets latter-day Savatage!

Besides all the obvious ones that have already been listed, I always associated Hollow Years with Sting, Just Let Me Breathe with Wait for Sleep, the guitar riff at 2:14 of Behind the Veil being Countdown to Extinction-era Megadeth.

Some other ones that don't sound reminiscent of other songs, but that I always associate together would be PMU - Tom Sawyer, Ytsejam - YYZ and Learning to Live - Natural Science. I guess it makes sense since Rush is a close second favorite behind DT, and in the case of LtL-NS, both are my all-time favorite songs by both bands.

[Calvin6s]

Just Let Me Breathe with Wait for Sleep

I always likened it to a thicker 6:00

[TAC]

The very beginning of Misunderstood has always reminded me of the very beginning of Led Zeppelin's Ten Years Gone.

[chaossystem]

I was hoping for more comparisons to "classic rock" (pre-1990, or at least pre I&W) songs.

Anyway, what I'm also talking about is the "vibe" or theme, or lyrical content of a lot of the band's songs.
An example of that is that it recently occurred to me that a lot of ADToE seems to have been inspired by Yes.
More specifically, the lyrical content of BitS and BAA are both very much like what Yes does, or at least used to do, when Jon Anderson was writing a lot of the lyrics.

[Ben_Jamin]

Forsaken is Evanescense.

It is also Cold by Static-X

I'll add...The Mirror, and Pantera - Domination.

[KevShmev]

The very beginning of Misunderstood has always reminded me of the very beginning of Led Zeppelin's Ten Years Gone.

Totally.  It's not the same thing, but the vibe is very similar. 

Just like the beginning of Peruvian Skies having that Bleeding Me-vibe.