IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

This is the album which started everything... At least to me! In the late 80's I've bought a vinyl reissue of "In the Court...", and KC got me forever. Before Crimson, my favorite prog bands were Pink Floyd, Yes and ELP, but this album made me a Crimhead who fought hardly to get other KC albums (a hard task in Brazil - few CDs were officially released here and their LPs were out of print in the mid 80's - and this includes "Discipline", "Beat" and "Three of a Perfect Pair"). Back to "In the Court...": this album begins with an outburst of energy called "21st. Century Schizoid Man", still KC's signature tune and IMHO one of the first songs which may be called prog-metal. The next tune, "I Talk to the Wind" is a beautiful ballad, highlighted by Lake's sensitive vocals and MacDonalds reeds and flute. "Epitaph" is a majestic tune, featuring Fripp's acoustic guitar. "Moonchild" begins as a ballad, then segues into a free- form sonic experiment - most progheads hate this last segment, but I find it interesting. Another majestic tune, "The Court of the Crimson King", ends this wonderful album, but sounds a bit dated in my opinion - maybe this is the song which haven't aged very well, but it's still interesting. If you don't have this album, buy it now - and if you have some spare money, buy "Larks Tongues in Aspic" - this one is even better.