From the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, Friday March 22nd, 1996.
Back on Course
For the past year or so, Dallas' tribal/industrial metal band Course
of Empire has kept a low profile, popping up for the occasional gig
and that's about it.
CoE guitarist Mike Graff says they've been killing time building a
new recording studio in Deep Ellum and pounding out a new album.
The studio's done, Graff says, and is the primary recording spot for
the group's new record, Telepathic Last Words, which is pretty much
in the can. It's due out in mid-June.
Graff says the new record - which includes a cover of T. Rex's Cosmic
Dancer - marks yet another change in CoE's direction.
"It's like old school glam rock mixed in with what you'd expect from
us," he says. "We were trying to capture the frame of mind before
punk happened, when people were still tyring to do glam rock."
Telepathic - named after magician Harry Houdini's supposed final
trick (to contact his wife from the grave) - was produced my John
Fryer, whose credits include Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing westward,
Love and Rockets and numerous like-minded others. Fryer was visiting
friends in Dallas when the guys hit up to produce the record.
"It was a stroke of luck to have someone like him pop up in your back
yard," Graff says.
COE, whose early incarnation included soon-to-be-hired/later-to-be-fired
Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzese, is known for its grinding percussive
noise as much as it is for its holocaust/doomsday lyrics. This time
out, Graff says, they've lightened up a bit.
"They're [the lyrics] definitely less me-against-the-world," he says.
"I guess they're dealing more with things that matter to us,
personally."
Course of Empire performs with Comet and Rubberbullet at 10pm Friday
at Trees. Cover is $7. Info (214) 748-5009.
(
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