I think this is a dead end discussion. Altho very interesting how very diverse we hear music. I'm going thru The Gathering as we speak and I'm struggling to hear any resemblance with Astral/MFG in "how their melodies are built up". Let's not forget that you are a serious producer which might have something to do with how we decifer the music, or what you wanna call it. Also would be nice if you could give example in were classic sounds were used prior to Classical Mushroom.
I didn't say it was bad. I didn't agree with what you said first that they copied artists. Now you saying that they were inspired, which I can agree on lol.