Metal Injection

It always fascinates me when there is any type of drama among the metal community. (Blame TMZ.) It also interests me a great deal how different major-label bands influence the sound of another major-label band. A user on former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy's forums pointed out that his former band's new song "Build Me Up, Break Me Down" sounds very similar to "Feed The Machine" by Red. Mike Portnoy commented on the thread, and agreed, which caught some flak from other posters:

"Check out the first song on [John Petrucci's] fave album of the year…. WOW, the arrangement and orchestration sounds awfully familiar!! Surely it must be an intentional 'nugget' for the fans… It couldn't possibly be blatant formula plagiarism, now could it…?? I just have to laugh…"

I've listened to the song, and there are differently similarities. Especially in the song structure and the arrangement. A few people on Mike's forum thought he was being "classless", but he said he was merely just stating his opinion as a listener.

Hey…I'm not trying to start a war…. and I am indeed totally in a happy place in my life and career… I'm just merely making an observation and posting openly on my own forum like I always have and always will… If anybody ELSE wants to blow this up, it's their choice and doing…not mine! "And PS – to defend music that I co-wrote/arranged (that were cited previously in this thread), there's a difference between 'inspiration corner'/'copping a certain vibe' and blatantly re-writing an existing song or formula section by section…"

Ironically, John Petrucci, Dream Theater's guitarist and main songwriter, listed Red's album that features "Feed the Machine" as his favorite album of 2011 on the Roadrunner Records website. He also commented on how he thought the songwriting, production, and playing were "stellar".

Conclude what you want: