Star Wars Metal Band Galactic Empire Releasing Debut Album

Metal bands have been worshipping the Dark Lord for some time, at least as a part of their stage show. However, no one has thrown up the horns for the Dark Lord of the Sith before, until "Galactic Empire" came to the fore. The heavy metal band inspired by and themed to Star Wars is about ready to release their first full length album in Februsary, and it should rock.

The first single (you can listen to it above) is, naturally, their cover of the Imperial March, known to fans worldwide as "Darth Vader's theme." The instantly recognizable song from legendary composer John Williams has meant there's dark trouble around the corner for three decades, and that made it the perfect choice for the Galactic Empire. Their crowdfunding campaign hit over $60,000 last year, and it's going toward the self-titled album on February 3 from Rise Records and a UK and US launch tour to support it.

Galactic Empire is "a heavy metal band comprised of the most sinister villains in the universe. Thanks to key members in the Senate and our allies at Rise Records and Velocity Records the Galaxy will kneel before us on February 3 when we unleash the full power of this album. The puny humans of your small forest planet Earth have also indicated a desire to see the mighty Galactic Empire perform our music in a live scenario. We would be most pleased to fulfill this request," they said in a press release reported on by TeamRock.com.

The tour will launch ahead of the release, taking Galactic Empire through the UK from December 1-20, hitting Brighton, Cardiff, Liverpool, Glasgow, Reading, London, and more. From there they'll head stateside for two shows in Pennsylvania, at Lancaster Chameleon Club December 28 and Rex Theater in Pittsburgh on January 6, 2017.

The tracklist of Galactic Empire's debut album should look pretty familiar to Star Wars fans:

1. Main Theme
2. Imperial March
3. Duel of the Fates
4. The Force Theme
5. The Asteroid Field
6. Battle Of The Heroes
7. Cantina Band
8. Ben's Death: Tie Fighter Attack
9. Across The Stars
10. The Forest Battle
11. The Throne Room: End Title

Check out the full album cover and UK tour info in the gallery below.

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Darth Vader will return in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which hits US theaters December 16, 2016. Directed by Gareth Edwards, it's the first of the new standalone features from Lucasfilm and Disney, which take place outside the core "Skywalker Saga" of films noted by an Episode number. Rogue One tells the story of the small band of rebels that were tasked with stealing the plans to the first Death Star. The story spins directly off the opening crawl from the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. In that crawl, it read: "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."