THRAK

Almost a perfect mix of all the previous king crimson work. Thrak is wothout a doubt another masterpiece, and each song gets better with every listern. Every corner there's a new suprise, every second a perfectly placed chord or a beautifully composed sequence. I heard that this was the albumn that influenced Tool to play, and i have no doubt that this is true, or at least could well have been true. Unlike many bands, the string arrangements on some tracks are not over used, but only accentuate the following music. From the beginning of Vroom to the end of Vroom Vroom: coda, an energy only the best few bands can manage to produce is kept going, and never dropped for a second.

Having said that, Thrak falls down on something that has only got worse with the crimson albumns that followed it. The lryics oftern get in the way, and are less imaginitive than some of the classic crimson titles. The best tracks on this albumn are the intrumentals "Thrak", "Vroom" and the incredably cleaver "coda: marine 475". Even the beautiful "One time" could have done without the verse lyrics.

Not the best ever King Crimson works, but still ahead of its time, still fresh and energetic, still great listerning in new and exciting ways, and better than most others could dream of.