From Concrete Corner, March 1994
Course of Empire
A barbed mesh of squalling guitars, primal rhythms and thought-provoking lyrics, Course
of Empire's sophomore album, Initiation, takes listeners on a dark tour of contemporary
society. Featuring American, European, and Middle-Eastern musical influences, the
album is a genuine rarity - a sonic psycho mantium yielding fresh insights with each
listen. The album picks up where the band's 1992 debut, Course of Empire, left off.
That maiden effort found the Texas quintet displaying a deadly serious intellect.
Though Initiation is similarly intense, its lyrics are leavened with a sardonic wit.
The band blasts conformity and celebrates self-awareness on such songs as "White
Vision Blowout," and "Breed." The band's songwriting savvy is amply displayed on the
album's first single, "Infested." Over a host of frenzied guitars and swinging
rhythms, vocalist Vaughn Stevenson bellows a litany of apocalyptic images, including
a chat with Charles Darwin. "It's about population control - a kind of joke on the
'save-the-planet/we're-all-rats-on-a-sinking-ship' thing. Actually, it's not so much
that the planet's infested as are the people who are on it!" says guitarist Mike Graff
caustically. "Infested" is but one highlight from an album brimming with standout
tracks. "Breed" concerns man's unsuccessful attempts at suppressing his most basic
urges. The title track asserts its message through sheer sound alone. While
experimenting with self-referential feedback loops, the band found a way to break
open and amplify the sound of the recording studio's pristing silence, resulting in
what drummer Chad Lovell calls a "sub-atomic look at the void." "Actually," says
Stevenson, "'Initiation' says a lot about appearances. Much of the time it looks
like there is nothing going on out there, when in fact there are other worlds, things
going on that we can't necessarily perceive." Course of Empire's fierce socio-
political activism is nowhere more articulate than on Initiation, in the relentless
crunch of what sounds like thousand drummers drumming as if their lives depended on
it.
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