IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING

Many say that it's impressive that such an album as this was released back in 1969. The birth of prog say others. I'd even take it one step further. This is the album that could remain as the only progressive album, yet summarize just about everything that progressive rock was about.

The album starts off with the harder-than-metal-kick-in-the-face intro of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and in a few seconds breaking ground for zeuhl, heavy prog and (with the distorted vocals) even progressive metal. The song then leads into a wonderful instrumental jazz-rock middle section, before returning to the heavy riff from the beginning and ending with a seemingly uncontrolled frenzy that leads thoughts to the experimental/avant-gardistic side of progressive rock.

After this comes the beautiful prog ballad "I Talk to the Wind" and the dark and atmospheric "Epitaph", which combines emotion and complexity in an astonishing way. Both must-hears. Next track is "Moonchild", and judging from most of the earlier reviews, this particular child must be the bastard of the otherwise so perfect family. While most agree on the beauty of the ballad in the opening of the song, the following ten minutes of free-form improvisation remain controversial. While I honestly can't argue for its musical brilliance, I can't skip the track either, as it offers a both entertaining and relaxing journey and serves as a perfect build-up for what's to come.

The final track of the album. Pompous. Grandiose. A true symphonic masterpiece. This is Progressive rock in a nutshell.

Okay, so what I tried to say here is that this album is very special. Not only because it was so early, but because it had glimpses of so many the "main" sub-genres of prog. Not only are these glimpses performed. They are performed in such a fashion, that we can be sure that King Crimson would be a leading inspiration of whatever sub-genre they might have chosen.

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