Galactic Empire
Episode II

May the fourth be with you says both the Galactic Empire and many others on this Stat Wars day that sees the second episode in the saga about the Galactic Empire continues. A quintet of guys dedicated to spreading the dark side of the force through the force of music, and you might claim that the force is with them. This episode two follows the year after the self-titled debut and it is an adventure through worlds and people of the Star Wars world. And now they will probably again head out in the touring death star to visit stages around the world to spread the power of the dark side – and with this album to back them up they have every chance to do so.

The music of Galactic Empire is a bastardised Star Wars soundtrack in an instrumental progressive metal style, it tells stories that are played out when you close your eyes or just engage your imagination. You can feel the force flowing around you when listening, fairly heavy, varied and melodic – many times furiously fast fingers flowing up and down the guitars. The producer certainly has used the force and used it to good effect in creating this excellent production, good variation and such as well. And is very epic, like a strong adventure from the Star Wars lore even though it may at times not be as dark as you can expect something from messengers from the dark side could put together – but that might be how they seduce their Sith warriors or whatever they are called to join the dark side of the force.

This second episode definitely rivals any Star Wars film, perhaps even more exciting than most of those movies with epic, funny, and exciting soundtracks. I think they have managed to build their own Star Wars soundtrack and I would not have anything against hearing this kind of music as the score of a new Star Wars movie, perhaps that would improve that franchise quite a bit. But it may be lucky for Luke and perhaps also Rey that this Empire stays in control of the music instead of the empire in the movies because Dark Vader, Boba Sett and co would not have fallen to small furry creatures, they would have made them into hats and gloves, the Emperor would have wasted Luke and the unhappy ending would have been a fact to the tunes of distorted guitars. But I guess that would not have made the most popular movie ending, so perhaps it is good this Galactic Empire only controls the force of music.

So, if you have a bad feeling about this I can only point out that you should never underestimate the power of the dark side – this certainly is a compelling argument for the empire’s side. And with that said I grab my lightsabre and go for the vinyl issue of the album, which is surely a good addition to any collection. Get it and may the force be with you through your headphones or loudspeakers.

HHHHHHH