Plagiarism or similar Rock/Metal CD covers? Kiss, Manowar, Bruce Dickinson,Angra

E

Encorer

Prowler
Hey guys,

I was reading a great story published on a site about plagiarism and similar Rock/Metal artwork. It includes an amazing story on the use of William Blake's painting by both Bruce Dickinson and Gilgamesh.

Take a look at those galleries:

Bruce Dickinson/Gilgamesh: http://solada.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/designer-grafico-de-bruce-dickinson-justifica-coincidencia-historica

Kiss/Manowar, Ivanhoe/Evergrey, Hexenhaus/Morbid Angel: http://solada.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/a-mesma-arte-de-novo

Angra/Death SS, Tailor Diniz/Shaman, Nazareth/Nashville Pussy, Eternal Night/Ten, Warlock/At Vance, Uriah Heep/Annihilator: http://solada.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/explicacoes-de-mattias-noren-evergrey-ivanhoe-e-mais-artes-similares
 
Hi, thanks for the info, but I'd like to tell you that the one by Bruce Dickinson has already been discussed in another topic.


I didn't know about the others, though, so interesting first post!
 
I suspect that the Manowar cover was an intentional reference to the Kiss cover, since Destroyer is the most famous cover in that whole bunch. Not plagiarism, but rather homage. (Of course, that means I'm assuming Manowar has enough working brain cells to plan a homage, which probably isn't true.)

I also suspect deliberate homage in the Nazareth vs. Nashville Pussy covers.

The Uriah Heep vs. Annihilator isn't anywhere near plagiarism. Just because both covers have demon faces doesn't mean anything. The demons are different enough - not the identical picture getting re-used like in the other comparisons.

I doubt any of these would be considered plagiarism. To do that, you have to steal the original work of another, and not give credit for it. So Bruce and Gilgamesh chose to use the same Blake painting - that's just 2 people using the same resource, not plagiarism. In some cases it may show a lack of creativity on the part of the copycat, but that's not plagiarism.

Also remember that doing a homage to older album covers is a long tradition. There have probably been hundreds of album covers based on Meet The Beatles.

Meet.gif


The most famous copy of this may be the first Kiss album:

!!!!kiss1.jpg


Though the pictures aren't posed exactly the same way, Kiss has stated that their cover was indeed a deliberate homage to Meet The Beatles.
 
Looks more like the cover to Queen II. 

The fact that Bruce Dickinson and Gilgamesh both used the same painting by William Blake is hardly plagiarism, any more than the George C. Scott version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol "plagiarized" the Alastair Sim version. 
 
I agree. Plagiarism is not the case here. These examples are a mix of coincided similarities and homages, that's all. Q: Would you call the following example plagiarism?

LetItBe.jpg

ShoutattheDevilCD2.jpg


A: Of course you don't, that's simply homage!
 
And that type of image is very common. I believe Poison and KISS have done something like that before.
 
The four boxes (or boxes for however many members are in the band is pretty common).  The Kiss Destroyer and Love Gun covers have been "re-used" several times. 
 
lol I was just about to post that. What pisses me off is that they think that no one knows who Megadeth is.

And I can't stand Rise Against, even before they ripped off End Game.
 
Seriously? Is the word Endgame a creation of Dave Mustaine's?
 
I hear you, but I'm glad that Priest didn't call their 1980 album Killers instead of British Steel. ;)
 
British Steel I think is (or was at the time) even a registered trademark. So that's actually a commercial rip-off if there ever was one. ;)
 
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