Classical Composer Reacts to Heavy Metal STAR WARS cover: The Imperial March (Galactic Empire) 

Your Yoda impression is actually pretty dang good

“I can’t do a Yoda.” You’re kidding, right? That was a phenomenal Yoda! At first I thought you were sampling one of the movies.

May the 4th be with us all!!

Props to them for including the Wilhelm Scream at the end.

Doug is a treasure. I really like how he adds context and interesting facts about the music he listens to

Epica also recorded a version of the Imperial March. It deserves the comparison. 🙂

And May The Fourth Be With You! And yes, John Williams is incredible…. I absolutely love his work!

It’s so refreshing to hear someone putting John Williams in the company he deserves❤

You've actually got a pretty decent Yoda voice Doug 😂. It's definitely better than mine lol

Awesome video Doug. From one music teacher to another I totally agree with you about John Williams. My elementary band has played several of his pieces. He is a genius and movie music is underrated especially with school band programs. Love your stuff!

That was a great Yoda impression - with a sprinkling of Miss Piggy thrown in! Brilliant.

I got to see Galactic Empire 5 years ago and it was mad fun! Thanks Doug for your great reviews for great songs!! Love from Spain

They have a fantastic live show as well, they obviously work really hard to overcome the effect of the masks on stage.

Hey Doug, I'm so hyped you went for a OST. Any chance we get to see more OSTs with you? Would love to hear you talk about them. Keep up the good work!

"Hmm. The Daily Doug, this is, and thankful, we are that, joined us today, you have."

This was impressive, most impressive… 😉 Saw them at Graspop Metal Meeting, great show!

That sounded exactly like yoda

Fun that was. My respect you have.

Hey Doug, Anikan's theme from The Phantom Menace is the Imperial March rearranged. You should do a video of comparing the two.

This version is "Ok"... Please search youtube for the version done by EPICA. There's is absolutely Perfect. Thanks!

Star Wars. May 4th is the anniversary of Star Wars. May the 4th be with you.

John Williams is the Man!

That was so fun! I came to Star Wars later (I was twelve when Phantom Menace came out, saw it then, saw the trilogy, and fell in love), but Return of the Jedi has been not just my favourite Star Wars movie, but my favourite movie, period, since 1999. Happy Star Wars Day!

Would love more reactions to and analysis of other Williams pieces and film scores by other composers!

These guys actually did a live show on Twitch today, obviously because its May 4th. I was fortunate enough to see them on a tour with Mac Sabbath in 2019; they are fantastic live and they play just like this, in full costumes (minus the gloves, lol) and a pretty decent little light show to go with it. There's one part where they emulate the Death Star firing and all the colored lights turn green and point at the same spot like in the movies... just for it to break down before it actually goes off; complete with an engine breakdown noise and everything, lol. As for my favorite film, it's definitely Empire Strikes Back. There are a lot of great developments in the plots established in the first film, but without as much of the goofy stuff in Return of the Jedi that really got turned up to the extreme and put me off of it. It also sets up phenomenally well for the next movie with the classic "Act 2, where the bad guys are on top and things look desparate for our hero" framework. Another point in its favor is that Empire has the best Yoda in the entire franchise and honesty, I don't think it's really debatable. Finally, it has so many timeless musical pieces that are so iconic today; the asteroid field, the expansion of the Imperial March theme, the final scene on the medical ship as they look out at the heart of the galaxy... great, great stuff.

I was Born in 1973. My mom took me to the theaters to see Star wars New Hope and I was glued. a Young 3 years old was hooked and my mom still claims that was the best money she ever spent. I was quiet for the whole film and wanted to see it again. My christmas presents where pretty much Starwars from then on. I have seen every Star wars movie in the theater. New Hope is my Favorite and will be dear to my heart.

10:49 Here's a story that happened to me a few years ago. I was at university and for a project we had to do a video performance. Me and a friend decided to make a "music video" (really just we playing with two cameras that kept alternating) so we asked another friend to join us and he would bring his cameras and film it for us. On the day we set to film a lot of stuff kept making a lot of mistakes and it took us several hours to record the thing. The friend with the camera left and we finally went to the PC to edit the thing. Only then we realized that the audio was completely shit and unusable so we decided to re-record the audio (using proper capture and not an app in our phones) and at that moment we realized the big mistake we made. We should have done that from the beginning in as few takes as possible and only then record the video "mimicking" the audio we recorded. Everything would have been so much easier. TLDR: They are probably just playing over their own record that was made without gloves haha

Hah, well done Sir! May the 4th also be with you too!

Yup. Episode 4. I was nine and went with a friend and sat through it twice! 1977.

I'm a year older than Doug. I do remember seeing TESB at the drive in. I was too young to fully understand all of it but it left a deep impression on me. I clearly recall the scene where Vader and Luke were fighting at Bespin, and the big reveal that he was his father. So awesome. I wish I could see that again for the first time

The Imperial March perfectly represents the oncoming of dark power!

We are same age, Doug, an I also watched Episode 6 first, before 4 and then 5. Favorite is Empire Strikes Back, 5. Interesting you had not mentioned, but maybe did not have to, the relations of the music to Gustav Holst's The Planets. I tried Soda just now and... Not bad but yours is better! You cannot escape the imperial march made my day😂

i saw these guys live, they were great.

May the force be with you Doug and Megan 🤘🤘⭐⭐🎸🎸

I love that you credited the song to the the galactic empire

My son will love this. Thanks!

in 2003 I had the opportunity to experience John Williams perform at the Hollywood Bowl with the The Los Angeles Philharmonic. It was a Salute to movie soundtracks with Star Wars performed in the latter half, while narrated by James Earl Jones!!

I have some footage of Dweezil Zappa and the Zappa Plays Zappa band doing the first minute of the Imperial March (Vader's Theme) at a sound check in Chicago in 2015

Another Williams piece: "Come the Heroes", IIRC : The olympic theme. I didn't know it was one of his until just recently.

Excellent Yoda mate :) This is the way

I was kinda hoping it would be heavier but it’s still pretty cool!

Star Wars music means a lot to me. My mum still get royalty cheques from Lucasfilm for my late Grandad who was a professional musician. We have no idea what involvement he had with Star Wars but I've checked with the London Symphony Orchestra and they've no record of him. The cheques are only about £10 a year so nobody get too excited. He was born and lived in Blackburn in the UK from very humble beginnings at the turn on the 20th century. He become a musician as a local man gave lessons and he quickly progressed as a flautist. His professional career saw him play with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, on ocean liners and was a bandsman in WW2 in the Coldstream Guards (he was too old to fight). He hardly spoke about any of this but he was some kind of official for the Musicians Union after he had retired from professional playing. I'd just love 10 more minutes now to ask him...what happened with Star Wars?

Great reaction, great video and a great cover version. I think you may want to try Yoda again after a wee dram of Red Breast Irish Whiskey. LOL.

I remember bunking off school to go and see the first movie on a matinee. Sitting front and center below the screen my jaw dropped when the star destroyer appeared. But the imperial march is my favourite of the soundtrack and my phone's ringtone :-)

You can do a Yoda!

We played a full wind ensemble transcription of the Star Wars music in college. The imperial March on low brass is so fun.

The best Star Wars is the holiday special. If you haven't seen it then your life is not complete.

Don't sell yourself short Doug, that was a pretty good Yoda impression. Edited part is this second after thought. I've never heard of this guy before, but one of the other RU-vid channels I'm subscribed too just did a reaction video on him, was AMAZING. Seeing as you're also a composer, like this artist, it should be right up your alley. His name is DIMASH, and the song was SOS. Even if you don't do a reaction to this song, check him out anyways for your own personal enjoyment, you DEFINITELY WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.

John Williams Master of The Movie Soundtrack May The 4th Be With You Enjoy The Channel!

Look up the "Binary Suns" theme being played by a lone trumpeter in a stairwell. The acoustics are amazing.

Okay, 1) what are you talking about, “I can’t do Yoda”, dude?! That was a _phenomenal_ Yoda impression! 2) Fun fact: “The Imperial March” actually exists _in-universe_ as well… except it’s been transposed to a major key and is the Galactic Empire’s national anthem. (See _Rebels_ season 1 “Empire Day” and… I think _Solo_ as well, you can hear snippets of the transposed in-universe version there.)

I would LOVE to hear you review Meco's disco version of Star Wars!

Frank Oz would be proud. You did Yoda and Fozzy in one voice.

Sounds more like Grover who was voiced by the same guy, Frank Oz.

This is the best May 4 content I’ve seen all day! Excellent breakdown!!

John Williams was really inspired by Gustav Holst, planet symphony (specially mars)

May the fourth be with you.

I'd love to see you actually do some reactions/analysis of John Williams. I'd especially want to hear you talk about Jurassic Park.

So, you finally get to show some Babymetal! For those not in the know, the three guitarists are now the two guitarists and the bassist for the Western Kami Band (and have been since 2019).

The Wilhelm scream was the icing on the cake.

My buddy got to fill in on drums for these guys. His favorite character is Boba Fett (he has a tattoo to prove it) and he was beyond excited to wear the suit.

I've always thought the music for the giants Fafner and Fasolt from Das Rheingold would lend itself to a metal riff.

It's funny that I'm listening to this after watching your Babymetal reaction video. Doug, you had asked or commented on the fact that you didn't know who the backing band was. CJ Masciantonio who is in Galactic Empire also played with Babymetal for some of their Japan shows

That's a very strong Yoda you got there actually

Anyone can do yoda. Just do Grover and flip the sentences around. I really expected more commentary on the how this track brilliantly goes up in key periodically yet returns to the Gm at the end. Neat to see this as a metal song. I've always banged my head to this son since I was a little kid. The part near the end where the accents go to the twos is metal as fuck! Thanks for doing what is my favorite song in all of music, Doug.

I know I’m not part of the “Council” or a Patron, but has anyone ever requested “Crack the Sky”? ( She’s a Dancer, Ice, Maybe I can Fool Everybody) peeferrably from Live Sky.

An interesting thing is that the imperial march is the perfect song to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) with. It's memorable, between 100 and 120 bpm (which is the ideal frequency), difficult to slow down or hasten, and doesn't have the bad taste of having to sing staying alive or another one bites the dust. Remember: CPR saves lives and reduces disability!!!

May 4 = May The 4th Be With You May 6 = Revenge Of The 6th

10:36 - nope, Darth left his kid to play bass. 👹

A great Yoda that is. The Force is strong with this one.

This version is cool, but you need, need to hear the live performance by Epica from their album Classical Conspiracy.

Your impression is pretty impressive.

You should listen to the version of the Cantina Song that appears in the movie Paul, its played by Syd Masters and the Swing Riders

The starship trooper didn't miss a note 🤣

Suggestion for metal Monday, Saturday Night by the Misfits. Punk music is a genre of metal too!

You should definitely check out the rise of the shredi by them as well.

Have you seen the video by Charles Cornell about the Rogue One Vader scene, where the lightsaber plays a note that changes the chord? It's fascinating to wonder if it was intentional.

sounds and looks a lot like a Bill & Ted tune. Would fit into that. It´s good fun.

Yeah, i concur, your Yoda is pretty good

Next year you should listen to Hoth, they are a two-man band that released The Oathbreaker, a full album about anakin's transformation into Darth Vader. It's a masterpiece concept album

Wookie Mosh Pit Sounds Dangerous But Intriguing 🤔

I loved #8

I have A New Hope that you would've done a saga of these covers. Buckethead has an awesome Star Wars suite on guitar. My favorites are Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi, and Rogue One. Your Yoda is actually quite good. You just need to work on the backard syntax.

So in ESB, when Vader cuts off Luke's hand, disarming him. Vader - ACTUALLY- did Luke a favor, because the lightsaber he had, was the youngling slayer 9000, and the way Khyber crystals work with the force and spirituality..... etc yadda yadda yadda...

You say you can't do yoda but it's pretty damn good

For Cinco de Mayo, can we get Elmer Bernstein's theme from "The Magnificent Seven"?

My favourite Williams score is Close Encounters, and by some way. To place him alongside composers like Brahms, Mozart, Bach, or Wagner, is absurd, however.

And also with you. :)

Hello Doug, could you give a look to Duster? Good band, specifically the track “me and the birds”, it’s slowcore, a relatively new genre which is the polar opposite of grunge and its rebellious vibe, directly opposing it with slower tempos and more relaxed drumming, would be cool to see your opinion on them

I'm surprised that I don't see any mention that the guitarists from Galactic Empire are now Babymetal's backing band, the Western Kami Band.

My favorite piece of music from not only Star Wars, but also John Williams and classical arrangements overall. I made a video for a metal cover of the Imperial March... I think it might be up in my RU-vid channel, or it's at least in my Facebook videos... nothing fancy, just for fun.

That was a decent Yoda!

Would you consider a heavy metal cover of the Avengers Theme during the portals scene?

I've only bought 2 soundtrack albums in my life, The Sting and Star Wars.

It's not a bad Yoda impression. 👌

Also, it is Dave Brubeck Day!

Don't sell yourself short. That's a great Yoda!

And from another genre (a little Close Encounters in the closer, because it was part of their overall show)...all on 2-valved brass in G and ALL in treble clef (yes...even the low brass). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hxlv_5EgtPk.html

Remember that revenge of the fifth happens tomorrow (Revenge of the sith)

Seriously! Check out any song from Black Dahlia Murder. It's very heavy death metal, but when you break down their structure it's very much like listening to an orchestra. I like to download their guitar tabs and import them into Guitar Pro and change all the guitars into strings. It will blow your mind. Maybe start off with "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse"