The Red And The Black

[KidInTheDark666]

You can have influences without stealing riffs.

 

[Poto]

It's almost as if bands have influences.
The Nomad influence is fine.
This is Uriah heap is fine, just a small riff at the beginning,
The Hallowed Lyrics rip off isn't fine though.

The Nomad influence? That's not influence. That part is a rip off. I agree that the similarity between TRATB and Uriah Heep's song is fine. It's such a small part of the song. Who knows if Steve even has heard that song. When it comes to Hallowed's lyrics I couldn't care less.

 

[LooseCannon]

Who knows if Steve even has heard that song.

I'm pretty sure Steve has sited Heep before as a band which he is a fan of. But there's only so many riffs in this world, too. I doubt it's intentional. Nobody's called Bazza, anyway.

 

[MindlessPieces]

The Nomad influence? That's not influence. That part is a rip off. I agree that the similarity between TRATB and Uriah Heep's song is fine. It's such a small part of the song.

The Uriah Heap part is much more closer to the original than the Nomad section is.

 

[srfc]

Heap's bit is one phrase repeated 4 times, TRATB has 4 phrases in the same amount of space. Although that video is edited so you don't notice this.

 

[LooseCannon]

Heep.

 

[The_7th_one]

very underated band by the way

 

[Niall Kielt]

Heep brought this up on some social media when it came out. Cant remember what was said but the tone was not one of anger. Its a simple, short part. No harm, no foul.

 

[Kalata]

Did Steve rip off this song by Uriah Heep to make the red and the black?

To me, this riff from Uriah Heep sounds like the riff in Fear Is The Key.

So they are the ones that ripped it off IMO.

EDIT: The instrumental part in The Nomad and the riff in Back In The Village (see Michael Schenker Group/MSG - Captain Nemo) are the only ripped off things, according to me ofc.

 

[Murder of Rue Morgue]

To me, this riff from Uriah Heep sounds like the riff in Fear Is The Key.

Fear is the Key's riff goes: E - F - D - E / E - F - A (high) - G# (high) / E - F - D - E / E - F - C - B

I Hear Voices' riff goes: E - D - G (low) - A (low) and it remains the same (just like Black Sabbath's Iron Man main riff, to be clear)

The Red and the Black's riff goes: E - D - G (high) - D / E - D - G (high) - A (high) / E - D - G (high) - A (high) / G (high) - D - C - G (low)

The only thing that Fear and Voices have (loosely) in common is the rhythm pattern, which is a gallop-ish in both Uriah Heep's song and Iron Maiden's. But Red & Black's pattern is much more similar to Voices' than Voices' is to Fear's. Both are basically gallops.
So, Red & Black's second bar is almost literally Voices' riff, but the last two chords are played one octave higher.


Answer to the question is: quite probably yes, but I'm more like "he did it unintentionally". Also the riff is quite basic (and shares also similarities with Avantasia's Sign of the Cross and Gamma Ray's Avalon - but besides the fact that I can't imagine 'Arry listening to Power Metal, Kai Hansen ripping off someone else's songs isn't that surprising).
But it has to be said that it isn't the first time, for Steve. We all know the Life's a Shadow double ripoff... but have you ever heard Nightmare by Mercyful Fate?