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10 times bands were accused of ripping off another band’s album cover

Call it an homage, a weird coincidence, or a total rip-off, but there are plenty of album covers out there that look suspiciously alike. Despite the original intentions (or lack thereof) of the bands and graphic designers themselves, people generally aren’t too happy when they see what looks like a perfect copy of another artist’s work. Some bands have actually taken to Twitter and various music outlets to confront the issue, while fans have also made their fair share of reports. These “rip-offs” occur in every genre, but here are 10 rock album look-alikes that will make you raise a brow.

Every Time I Die / Foster The People
Every Time I Die Low teens album artwork Foster the People III Album Artwork
They’re two extremely different types of bands, but who knows, maybe Foster The People listen to Every Time I Die in their spare time. ETID’s record Low Teens was released in 2016, and just one year later, Foster The People came up with almost the exact same cover artwork for their three-song EP release, III. ETID themselves pointed it out on Twitter, drawing support from their fans and other bands, including Code Orange and Harm’s Way—a group of people FTP most certainly don’t want to mess with.

Read more: Every Time I Die call out Foster The People for similar cover art

Bring Me The Horizon / Coldplay
bring me the horizon sempiternal album cover coldplay head full of dreams album cover

This album cover controversy was the subject of much talk and speculation for months. Plenty of interviews with Bring Me The Horizon have addressed the similarity between their Sempiternal cover and Coldplay’s subsequent record A Head Full Of Dreams. BMTH vocalist Oli Sykes admitted that the flower of life symbol, which was the basis of each album’s artwork, was an ancient symbol and didn’t belong to any one particular band, but that Sempiternal did come first. Fuel was added to the fire when Sykes pounced on Coldplay’s table at the 2016 NME Awards and smashed it to pieces. While there was speculation he did this on purpose, he’s gone on record as saying it was just the nearest table to him during BMTH’s performance.

Read more: Do you think Coldplay’s supposed new artwork rips off Bring Me The Horizon?

Elvis Presley / The Clash
elvis presley 1956 album cover the clash london calling album cover 
Both Elvis Presley and the Clash are now giant figures in rock history. While a listener might think they don’t have much at all to do with each other sonically, the Clash’s album artwork for London Calling suggests otherwise. The pink and green lettering of Elvis Presley’s self-titled 1956 album shows up in the exact same format and placement on the Clash’s landmark record decades later. The artist who designed the London Calling cover, Ray Lowry, has said that he did this not as a rip-off, but to pay genuine homage to the rock ’n’ roll icon and the beginning of rock music. However, others have speculated differently, concluding that the Clash cover is meant to put into relief the end of early rock ’n’ roll and usher in the era of punk.   

The Dillinger Escape Plan / The Ghost Inside
the dillinger escape plane one of us is the killer album cover the ghost inside dear youth album cover

The Dillinger Escape Plan were not exactly enthusiastic when the cover of the Ghost Inside’s 2014 record, Dear Youth, was revealed. The cover of TGI’s new record looked a lot like Dillinger’s cover for One Of Us Is The Killer, which had come out just a year before. Both covers feature a black quill with splattered ink, though the overall positioning and composition of the artwork is different. While Dillinger went on record as saying the Ghost Inside should have done their artwork differently, TGI responded to the controversy by stating they had never seen the album artwork and meant no disrespect.

KISS / Black Veil Brides
KISS the originals 2 album cover black veil brides set the world on fire album cover
This one is about much more than just an album cover. When Black Veil Brides really started to gain success, their makeup and costuming just screamed “KISS.” While many people jumped on the bandwagon and became part of the BVB army, others were put off by what they perceived as a total rip-off of a legendary rock band. An example of this would be the cover artwork of BVB’s Set The World On Fire and KISS’ The Originals II (1978). But BVB, from the very beginning, have expressed their idolization of KISS and fully admitted to wanting to be the modern-day version of the iconic band.

Read more: 10 songs that borrowed from other songs

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AFI / Architects
afi burials album cover architects all our gods have abandoned us album cover

AFI’s 2013 record Burials and Architects’ 2016 record All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us would look almost identical if the colors were not inverted. AFI’s cover is primarily black, illustrating an eclipse in grayscale, while Architects’ cover is just the reverse. So which one of the following would you classify it as: homage, accident or rip-off?

The Rolling Stones / The Beatles / Mötley Crüe / Shout At The Devil

rolling stones sticky fingers album cover Motley Crue Too fast to love album cover
the beatles let it be album cover motley crue shout at the devil album cover

Mötley Crüe have copied more than one album cover, which leads most people to believe that the move was deliberate. Whether it was a means of paying respect or not is uncertain, but the similarities are not to be denied. The resemblance between Mötley Crüe’s Too Fast For Love and the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers, as well as Shout At The Devil and the Beatle’s Let It Be are just too close to be coincidence.

Culture Abuse / From First To Last
culture abuse peach album cover from first to last make war album cover

Post-hardcore lovers were beyond thrilled when Sonny Moore (aka Skrillex) returned to From First To Last earlier this year to record new songs. However, there were a few people who weren’t so stoked, namely the members of punk band Culture Abuse, who feel as though FFTL’s art for their latest single, “Make War,” blatantly ripped off the cover of their album Peach. Culture Abuse called the band out on their socials, and Moore responded that it was completely not intentional. However, the response in question was also pretty condescending, as he made sure to include that “hopefully people will go check out [Culture Abuse’s] music and show them some love.”

Depeche Mode / Black Sabbath
depeche mode new life album cover black sabbath born again album cover

The cover sleeve for Depeche Mode’s single “New Life” and Black Sabbath’s Born Again both feature a crying baby in the same exact position. Depeche Mode’s artwork came first (1981) and remains truer to the actual image of a baby, while Black Sabbath’s version (1983) is a kind of child-of-Satan twist. Still, the similarities are too great to be ignored. Believe it or not, the artist who did Black Sabbath’s cover revealed that he actually hated the design and had never seen the Depeche Mode sleeve before drawing it. The artist, Steve Joule, did in fact rip off another source, though: It was a copy of the front cover of a 1968 issue of a magazine named Mind Alive. Joule played with the design, threw it at the label just because, and they actually went with it.

Meshuggah / The Legendary Pink Dots
meshuggah obzen album cover the legendary pink dots the gethsemane option album cover

This one is absolutely and undoubtedly a blatant rip-off. The bloodied, meditating person on the cover of Meshuggah’s obZen looks like it was copy-and-pasted onto the Legendary Pink Dots record The Gethsemane Option. While some minimal changes were made by the latter, the designs are still far too similar to be anything but plagiarism. (At least try to cover it up, right?)

Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments!