IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

This is where it all kinda began for King Crimson. They recorded another album before called Gills, Gills & Fripp under that name, but this album has a different line-up (which will happen a lot in the future because Fripp is difficult to work with). It starts with one of the all-time classic prog-rock songs, 21st Century Schizoid Man, which is an aggressive blend of jazz and rock with surrealistic lyrics. But a large part of the album is ruled by the mellotron, giving it a bit of a bombastic feel. I Talk To The Wind is a quiet ballad with a gorgeous theme, Epitaph includes very dramatic vocals by Greg Lake (who left after this album to join Emerson, Lake & Palmer) and a nice build-up. Moonchild is kinda creepy with some weird sound effects thrown in and the title track is another classic prog song with a classical-sounding mellotron 'riff'. It's also the song which most people probably heard before. I instantly recognized it but didn't know it was King Crimson. It has a dark, gothic and creepy feel, perfectly in synch with the scary album cover. A great start!