Dream Theater is in the middle of a controversy following accusations from Orion’s Ben Jones saying artist Hugh Syme sold the same artwork twice.
Jones wrote on Facebook last Friday, “Is this for real?! A piece of artwork in the new Dream Theater deluxe edition is the EXACT same piece of artwork that was in ‘The Lightbringers’ booklet for the song ‘The Ghosts Among Us.’ I’m sure they won’t read this, but any thoughts from Mike Portnoy or John Petrucci? Hugh Syme did the artwork for my album and theirs, so I think I can see where this is going…”
Orion’s mastermind later revealed that he had been asked to take down his post about the situation but refused, calling the request ‘cowardly.’ He added that “not all your favourite prog outlets feel the same way” and deleted the discussions about the issue.
“Unless something happened whilst I was asleep, there was no threatening, abusive (etc, etc) behaviour that might typically warrant closing down a discussion,” the post continued. “Now, people are free to run their groups and pages however they see fit. I guess they didn’t want to run the risk of biting the hand that feeds them…”
Syme has not publicly addressed the allegations. But, on February 9, Jones commented under his second post that he had spoken with Dream Theater’s team and came to an agreement. He clarified that he did not accuse the band of plagiarism and admitted that they were also victims.
Explaining his decision to bring the issue to light, Jones said, “The other part of my reason for posting this is that I wanted DT to be aware. I’m no big name musician, and I don’t have the means to easily contact the likes of DT, hence why I took the time to make 3-4 initial posts on a couple of different pages about it. I certainly didn’t think it would turn into this.”
“Well, the outcome is that Dream Theater‘s manager contacted me on Saturday night, and we had a very amicable exchange. I also took the chance to clarify with Frank that I don’t think they have committed any wrongdoing. Despite the fact that they really owe me nothing, Frank made me a very kind offer, which I will take him up on at some point.”
Syme has already been a controversial name in the art community. He previously faced criticism for relying on AI in his work.
