Hail to the King baby!

I've been a prog fiend for most of my life, my father's record collection leaving a serious mark on my musical tastes. For years I've been heavily into YES and all the various of-shoots and side projects surrounding the prog messiahs, as well as being very keen on Genesis and later in my teens discovering the 90s prog renaissance spearheaded by Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree etc.

It is only comparatively recently that I've really started listening to King Crimson, and I have to admit I'm obsessed! I'm sure most people are aware of 21st Century Schizoid Man and would recognize the cover of In The Court of The Crimson King, but I was surprised at how little I really knew about the band's history and back-catalogue (other than the Bill Bruford connection I knew practically nothing about them 4 years ago).

I started by getting hold of the excellent Discipline album and was instantly hooked. I loved the complex intertwining odd-meter guitar parts, Tony Levin's stick and bass playing and Bruford's masterful drumming. Like all eighties prog, it sounds pretty far removed from the early 70s stuff and is vaguely commercial, but unlike the other prog albums of the era (Yes' 90125, Genesis' various pop-infused works and Asia) it is clearly still very progressive. Complex, heavy, intelligent. At times feeling more improvisational than I would expect, but never-the-less excellent.

I moved swiftly on exploring the various eras of the KC and found myself drawn to the more recent albums Thrakk, ConstruKction of Light and The Power To Believe. These are probably three of the heaviest KC albums, and that maybe why I like them so much, as you can here the influences in modern Prog Metal emanating to and from them.

I'm still discovering more and more KC stuff (the number of live albums is astounding, and their improvisational skills means no two concerts are alike) and recently I've been consumed by the ProjeKcts, a number of even more experimental KC groups/albums - but that's a discussion for another day.

If you're a prog fiend like me and haven't yet joined the dark side, go get some King Crimson!

My top five KC albums:
Discipline
Red
ConstruKction of Light
Thrakk
The Power to Believe