galactic empire - episode II

actually i wanted to be done with all my posts about 2018 releases in july but here we are with the last one in august. ah well, does anybody care anyway? galactic empire was one of the surprises of early 2017 and i was blown away by the technical finesse with which the band played all those lovely orchestral pieces john williams wrote for my favourite movies of all time. even the songs for the sequels worked like magik to my muscles of the neck, i couldn't stop banging my head.

galactic empire made a few north american live appearances and their success even brought them to europe for a string of shows. i was lucky enough that they also played in hamburg so i went there in late april and the gig was a blast. the guys played in full costume which must have been unbelievably hot. even i was sweating just from existing because the small venue was well stocked. galactic played a fantastic gig and i was close to get the new record from the merch table despite my pre-order still going.

i could restrain myself eventually and waited patiently for my ordered copy to arrive. i bought it at jpc.de and it came in in prime condition. they know how to pack vinyl! musically episode II was not as familiar to me as the debut because quite a few songs are adaptions from the recent star wars movies (which are excellent in my humble opinion). still they play them with such virtuosity that i enjoy them anyway. great record and great colour-way. cyan blue and black merge out of 838 copies. rise records. 2018.

post scriptum: tomorrow is the first festival day of wacken 2018. i am excited for converge, ghost, dimmu borgir, gojira and a few more. i am off to wacken! see you...

galactic empire

this thing came straight out of the blue for me. i mean, i remember that i saw the video to the "main theme" somewhere along the way on the tube last year but i thought this was some well done fan project, a one-time occurence. i think, actually i am not far from the truth with that assumption. the "main theme" was put out to the release of star wars VII - the force awakens and was pretty succesful with over four million clicks to date.

backed up with such good resonance the guys set up a crowdfunding campaign and collected over sixty thousand dollars to record a full length album. rise records signed the band and over a year after they first appeared, the self-titled debut is out for the taking. i missed all the buzz around them and just learned about the existence of this record by seeing the album pop up for order at some german distros a week ago. i simply liked the cover art and then was delighted to find that this whole thing was a metal adaption of the music of my favourite movies of all time.

star wars metal is probably the coolest thing on earth, especially when it is so god damn well executed. their technical approach to the classic pieces is breathtaking at times. just listen to "duel of fates" (the first time i partly enjoy a prequel) and "across the stars" and be taken to a galaxy far far away... i ordered this pearl via jpc.de and i can only recommend them. fast and smooth transaction here. the vinyl colour looks awesome and matches the cover art very well. 1138 copies on transparent orange crush with halloween orange splatter. rise records. 2017.