Did ‘The New York Times Magazine’ Rip Off Dream Theater’s New Album Cover?

On Nov. 6, prog metal luminaries Dream Theater revealed the artwork to their forthcoming album, Distance Over Time. Just 12 days later, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story entitled "What Will Become of Us?" in their Text and Design issue and fans have begun to notice the alarming similarities between the album and magazine covers.

A Dream Theater representative has stated that the robotic arm seen on the album artwork was taken from a licensed stock imagery. While the Times cover does feature some minor aesthetic differences (no grip pad on the palm and fingertips, slightly different angles of the bent fingers), the design concept is essentially identical.

Both can be seen below as one fan mentioned the old adage, "imitation is the highest form of flattery," assuming the magazine has some Dream Theater fans amongst its staff.

Meanwhile, The New York Times Magazine has maintained innocence. A "Behind the Cover" video (seen below) claims that the cover was designed by a combination of computer generation and photography. Gail Bichler, the magazine's Design Director, tweeted her response to the above image, stating, "Yes, these things look remarkably similar but we had never seen the album. As far as I can tell the album and our cover were released within days of each other. Sometimes people independently come up with the same idea at the same time." Again, the covers were released 12 days apart.

What do you think? Was this pure coincidence or did The New York Times Magazine lift the concept from Dream Theater?

Distance Over Time is set for a Feb. 22 release through InsideOut Music and you can check out a teaser here.

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