Two Steps From Hell Similarities - Part 2

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bF-vwN23c_Y

This video shows some similarities between music by Two Steps From Hell (for those of you who don't know, they write music for movie trailers) and other music, mainly other film scores. Some of them are a slight similarity or coincidental - others are blatantly obvious! In all cases, the Two Steps From Hell track comes first, followed by the piece it's similar to - that's in order to give you a chance to guess before I give the game away :)

DISCLAIMER: This video is made in affection, and I have great respect for Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix (otherwise I wouldn't have all this music by them, would I?).

Part 2 covers the following 2SFH albums:

Some of Dreams and Imaginations (2008)
The Human Experience (2008) - a documentary score by Thomas Bergersen
Legend (2008)
The Devil Wears Nada (2009)
Power of Darkness (2010)
Illusions (2011)
Nero (2011)

If there are any other similarities that I've missed, don't hesitate to tell me in the comments section - I might make a third video sometime!

Hope you enjoy :)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• two
• steps
• from
• hell
• similarities
• similarity
• rip-off
• ripoff
• plagiarism
• part
• trailer
• music
• movie
• film
• score
• original
• soundtrack
• ost
• Two Steps From Hell
• thomas
• bergersen
• nick
• phoenix
• dreams
• imaginations
• legend
• human
• experience
• devil
• wears
• nada
• power
• darkness
• nero
• illusions

[SilvaAdrianiel]

Erm... as to the twofer, who's to say John Williams didn't rip off Hans Zimmer first?

[JoeSnyderwalk]

@SilvaAdrianiel Two reasons:

1) Hans Zimmer is great, but John Williams is a legend. He'd never borrow from an inferior composer.

2) The Buckbeak's Flight theme doesn't sound anything like Spirit. I was just pointing out that "Magic of Love" first quotes a bit of Williams' Buckbeak's Flight before launching into a theme that's really similar, both in structure and sound, to Zimmer's Spirit.

[BCSpore]

This is a really good video, but here are my thoughts: First of all, TSFH is in the movie trailer business, so you have to assume that some movies would want music that is styled off of other movies that are similar. It could also be just that some movies inspired Bergersen, and he used similar ques in his music, but not in the entire piece. And lastly, it could be dedication to fellow musicians. King Looey Kablooie was probably a dedication to Zimmer, because he had helped him with PotC4.

[JoeSnyderwalk]

@BCSpore Of course. I'm a huge fan of Two Steps From Hell (why'd I have heard all this music otherwise?). The fact that Thomas Bergersen's non-2SFH, non-trailer-music album Illusions - which is awesome - contains no references I can hear beyond the subtle Crimson Tide reference shows that they're more than capable of writing excellent music without borrowing from others.

Plus, it's kind of cool to hear some of these themes in totally different settings (e.g. rock version of Building the Crate).

[DeltaOps101]

They don't try to hide the really blatant ripoffs - nearly all of the titles hint at the original movie in some way. Like BCSpore said, this is what a lot of their clients are looking for.

[BCSpore]

And also, if you are looking for another comparison, Oz No More (Nero) has a lot of references to the flying monkey theme from Wizard of Oz, several Lord of the Rings bits, and even some old disney movies.

It still doesn't distract from TSFH greatness. And you cannot beat their completely original songs. ;)

[NathanDahlin]

Excellent work compiling this! After a few seconds of watching it, I was amazed to note that the video still had nine minutes of material to cover and you didn't disappoint. I have to share this with my friend, a fellow TSFH fan.

[YZPR]

These videos were fun to watch! You've a good knowledge of film music! I also think that there are some similarities in the 2011 Illusions' track "Sonera" and "Freedom Fighters".