Galactic Empire is coming to a US town near you this summer to annihilate your ears. Galactic Empire is a Star Wars themed metal band that play covers of, you guessed it, Star Wars songs. The instrumental band consists of 5 members, each one dressed as a different character from the Empire. Darth Vader shreds a guitar, Boba Fett rocks the drums (Mr. Fett wasn't a part of the Empire though) and an Imperial Guard and few stormtroopers round out the heavy metal Death Star. The band coerced Rise Records to put out their debut record earlier this year and now they're coming to rock a town near you to see whether they blow up earth or not.

The band recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to record their debut record, film a video, and make modifications to their officially licensed costumes (more on that later) so that they can play their instruments live. Galactic Empire was able to raise an insane $61,000 to the Dark Side of the Force. I would love to see a breakdown of how the cash was spent because that's a ridiculous amount of money considering bands record albums in their bedrooms these days and music videos can be made in the same bedroom on the same computer. Anyway, they raised the cash and now they're going on a US summer tour to bring their sonic terror to the masses.

The band has played sporadic shows and even recently completed a tour of the UK, but this will be the first true US tour and the band seems to be excited about it, though it's hard to tell with those masks on. Speaking of masks, it appears as though Disney and Lucasfilm weren't too happy about others making money off of the Star Wars brand and probably put the kibosh on the Galactic Empire's look. The band is now forced to wear knock-off suits that are now more comical than menacing. And those modifications to their suits that were mentioned earlier are merely taking off the gloves to play the guitar, which is a good thing because it's impossible to play guitar with gloves on. The thing that Galactic Empire really has going for them is their musical chops. Who knew Darth Vader could sweep pick and play gnarly arpeggios or that Boba Fett was such an accomplished metal drummer?

Galactic Empire is now one of the many theme bands out today trying to make a go with it. One of the better theme bands out there today along with Galactic Empire of course, is Mac Sabbath. They dress like McDonalds characters mixed with a Black Sabbath look and play McDonalds themed music to the tune of Black Sabbath. Some choice song titles are "Sweet Beef" and "Never Say Diet." Hamburgler and Lord Vader should have a guitar duel, I'd pay to see that.

Check out Galactic Empire's official Facebook page to see if they're coming to a town near you to choke you out with heavy metal John Williams covers. Also, go search out Mac Sabbath and let's see if we can get this Darth Vader vs. Hamburgler guitar duel to become a reality. In the meantime check out they're epic video for "The Imperial March" below and see if Chewie is a fan.