Metal Reviews

My favourite band. Gotta be some other Krimson fans around here, and for the rest of you, we can recommend good starting points.. anyone wanna tackle rating their albums? Favourite era? Hell, anyone wanna mock Robert Fripp?

I'll start with rating their albums:

In the Court of the Crimson King - 85/100, overrated but still timeless jazz-rock, arguably the first prog album (although let's not have a zappa/moody blues/beatles argument)
In the Wake of Poseidon - 60/100, like a less inspired version of the previous album
Lizard - 90/100, brilliant medieval jass-rock, with maybe the first side-long composition!
Islands - 59/100, lacking, I'm glad they restructured the band following this one

Larks' Tongues in Aspic - 95/100, holy shit
Starless and Bible Black - 85/100, underrated, Fracture could be one of their best compositions
Red - 99/100, HOLY SHIT! Meant to be their last album, but I'm glad they perservered, even if they never match this again.. they return six years later with a new line-up..

Discipline - 90/100, disturbing new direction but adrian belew turns out to be a genius.. dissonant romantic new-wave? a new genre containing exactly one band.
Beat - 60/100, crap rehash of Discipline
Three of a Perfect Pair - 45/100, really crap rehash of Discipline.. after this they rightfully sod off for a million years and then return as a six-piece double power trio..

THRAK - 95/100, stunning return to form, every one of the six artists (Fripp, Belew, Levin, Gunn, Bruford and Mastoletto - what a line up!) proves their worth.. this would be a 99 if not for the terribly muddy production..
The ConstruKction of Light - 80/100, great CD once you get past the first track, a proto-space-blues song that almost hijacks the whole album..
The Power to Believe - 75/100, their latest, sadly sans Gunn and Bruford.. interesting, sounding almost industrial at times, but the central theme isn't captivating enough to justify its repitition, and "Happy with What You Have to be Happy With" is too spiteful for its own good, and the song buckles under the lyrics.

So looks like my favourite era is Fripp-Wetton-Bruford-Cross, culminating in Red which is one of my all-time favourite albums. I can live with that. How about you?

A good place to start? As you know, I was going to start with 'In The Court...' but could go for Red, or something....?

Don't start with Red, it's a pretty violent introduction, and there's only five songs so if you hate even one you might get the wrong impression. Same with In the Court - five songs on there two, and although four are classics, the fifth has like eight minutes of meandering improv you can barely hear, kinda offputting when you're investigating a new band.. I'd say start with either Larks' Tongues in Aspic or Discipline.. both have more than five songs, and they both show off what Krimson have to offer; each has a lengthy classically structured piece, a brooding improv, a couple of dark prog-rock songs, and occasional woolly vocals. The only thing you miss by starting late are the lyrics of Peter Sinfield which are really poetic.

edit: those two have album covers which are pretty unmistakable:

Muchos gracias, muchacho!

I own 'In The Cort Of The Crimson King' and quite like it. Apparently they are responsible for kick-starting prog rock......

I also own their first album, but only got it quite recently so its only had one spin (as much as you can spin an mp3).

KING CRIMSON : MY TOP 3

1.In the Court of The Crimson King 95/100 best melodies
2.Red 90/100 pretty close
3.Discipline 80/100 a very surprising yet excellent album, KC's 80's own little revolution...

KC is a great band when it tries to do SONGS... Later KC is boring ! :(