"Course of Empire"

1. "Ptah" (3:15)
2. "Coming of the Century" (4:04)
3. "God's Jig" (4:02)
4. "Copious" (3:35)
5. "Cradle Calls" (3:56)
6. "Under the Skies" (4:11)
7. "Peace Child" (4:42)
8. "Sins of the Fathers" (3:27)
9. "Thrust" (7:30)
10. "Mountains of the Spoken" (3:42)
11. "Dawn of the Great Eastern Sun"--instrumental (6:37)

I have no idea how to classify this album. The songs range from heavy ("Century") to soft & airy ("Peace Child") to industrial ("Thrust") to ambient ("Dawn"). Whatever you call it, it's great shit! Every song sounds fresh & original and totally different from any of the others. It's one I listen to over and over and over again and never grow tired of it, thank God CDs don't ever wear out!

"Initiation"

    0.  "Running Man" (6:50)
    1.  "Hiss" (4:34)
    2.  "White Vision Blowout" (3:58)
    3.  "Gear" (3:13)
    4.  "Breed" (4:37)
    5.  "Apparition" (5:05)
    6.  "Infested!" (6:19)
    7.  "Invertebrate" (4:11)
    8.  "Sacrifice" (3:51)
    9.  "Minions" (7:59)
  10.  "Initiation"--instrumental (6:46)
  23.  "The Chihuahuaphile" (5:21)

This was actually the first COE album I heard, when my friend bought it, and I wasn't all that impressed. God only knows what I was thinking. After getting their debut, I figured I'd buy this one as well, but was waiting for the price to come down from $8.99. Well, then the record label went out of business and this CD disappeared from the used bins ENTIRELY. Ack!! In fact it auctions on eBay routinely for $20 or more! Well, this is where "doing your homework" pays off...after a long search of the 'Net, found a guy willing to sell his copy for a mere six bucks. Of course, the same day I got it in the mail, I ran across a copy at the Wherehouse selling for $4.99. Oh well, it was probably scratched anyway.

There are two "hidden" tracks on this CD, and no I don't mean that stupid shit like putting it on track #99 or something (although the segue between "Initiation" and "The Chihuahuaphile" is broken into 12 tracks of 2-7 seconds each, undoubtedly the most annoying mastering trick I've seen so far) -- I mean REALLY hidden. "Running Man" is placed BEFORE track #1 (hence listed as track #0), you have to scan backwards in order to hear it. The second hidden song, "Tomorrow", is buried out of phase underneath all that horrid feedback noise at the end of "Initiation". Only way to hear it is to press your speakers close together (which I tried, but couldn't hear shit) or split your speaker wires in a funny way. Hmm, oh well, it's a unique idea nonetheless.

"Infested!" (single)

1. "Infested" (4:09)
2. "Infested"--Darwin Goodman mix (4:41)
3. "Let's Have a War" (2:23)
4. "Joy" (3:46)

Well, shit. I could have picked up this single MANY times from the 99 cent bin, but since I didn't have Initiation yet, didn't see the point...of course, it's not so common anymore. Guess I shouldn't complain, since I got it from eBay for $1.25, or $3.50 with shipping. "Let's Have a War" is a punk song by Fear (right?); Sacred Reich did a helluva better version, though. "Joy" is a non-album track.

"Telepathic Last Words"

1. "Radio Tehran"--instrumental (1:38)
2. "New Maps" (4:14)
3. "The Information" (6:17)
4. "Automatic Writing No. 17" (4:28)
5. "Houdini's Blind" (4:00)
6. "Ride the Static" (4:09)
7. "Coming of the Century" (4:06)
8. "Persian Song" (5:49)
9. "59 Minutes" (8:22)
10. "Freaks" (2:43)
11. "Kaptain Kontrol" (3:57)
12. "Respect" (8:31)
13. "Blue Moon" (3:46)
14. "Anonymous Call to an Unknown Woman" (6:19)

The sound here is a lot heavier and more pure industrial than their first two releases, not as adventurous but still an excellent listen. One wonders why they had to redo "Coming of the Century", though. Apparently the band broke up right after this one.

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