Weird Music Wednesday: “Back to the Future” by Galactic Empire

Orchestral metal that reaches 88 MPH.

Dec 03, 2025

Cinemetal proves that even the most iconic orchestral film scores sound better when played by a battalion of helmeted, distortion-obsessed space villains. Galactic Empire, whose members perform in full Star Wars Dark Side regalia—a direct nod to their name—made their bones transforming John Williams’ Imperial themes into blistering metal anthems across three prior albums, culminating in 2023’s Special Edition.

Having seemingly exhausted the known Star Wars universe, the band has bravely journeyed to the furthest reaches of Earth’s blockbuster cinema with Cinemetal, delivering high-octane instrumental metal renditions of themes from franchises like Superman, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. The overall effect is less of a novelty act and more of a technical masterclass in instrumental precision; the guitars faithfully recreate the soaring string and brass melodies of the composers, while the rhythm section provides a machine-gun, double-kick drum foundation that redefines “epic!”

While some arrangements, like the dense, multi-layered “Harry Potter” theme, showcase pure technical wizardry, others manage to maintain the original score’s inherent sense of fun, reminding listeners that you can be crushing technical death metal while simultaneously paying homage to E.T. phoning home.

There really isn’t a “Best” track on this cinematic shred-fest, but I chose “Back to the Future“ because it’s a great example of the concept. While tracks like “Godzilla” bring the pure, unadulterated Meshuggah-level heavy, Alan Silvestri’s timeless theme perfectly fuses the band’s theatricality with genuine progressive metal structure. The song launches immediately with that unmistakable main fanfare, but the Galactic Empire treatment manages to make it sound like Doc Brown successfully invented time travel with the DeLorean, but uses a heavy distortion pedal and/or DW 9000 double kick drum pedal in lieu of the flux capacitor. It’s the most “cinematic” track that genuinely improves upon the source material by adding genuine metal crunch, transforming a bright 80s orchestral theme into a powerful, slightly ridiculous metalcore anthem that makes you want to tune up your axe and immediately hit 88 miles per hour.