Starless And Bible Black- King Crimson

King Crimson- Starless and Bible Black (1973)

Rating: 12

"The Worthy Captain and His Squad of Troopers, Standing Fast"

Best Song: Fracture

Worst Song: Trio

     This has to be one of the most underrated albums I have ever reviewed. On every site I look at for reviews, it got 7/16, 4/10, 4/10, and 7/10. It's a really good album! Most people tend to talk about the fact that 5/8 songs are live, and that 4/5 of those are improvisations. But the King Crimson improvs are some of the best music they ever did. All of the improvisations (except for one) are great and it's really hard to believe they actually improvised on it. But let's do a track by track analysis.

     The album kicks off with a song called "The Great Deciever", which is a great song driven by an awesome electric violin line and an awesome bassline! The lyrics are funny, and the singing is top notch. The next song, "Lament," is not as good, but has two cool sections. The first one is quiet, but the second part is regular rockin' Crimson, lead by a cool bassline. The next song is the instrumental improv, "We'll Let You Know," which is the best improvisation on the album. Once again, the bass is amazing. And when the drum comes in... wow.

     The 4th song is called "The Night Watch," and it's pretty good, just a bit soft. The next song, "Trio," is waayyy too soft. It's frankly just a boring song. Then side one closes out with "The Mincer", which is really creepy, but is made even creepier by the random cutout. Then side 2 opens up with the final improvisation of the album, which is the title track. While it's not my favorite, its still pretty good!

      All of these songs however, do not compare to "Fracture," This is easily in my top 5 Crimson songs, and one of the greatest Heavy prog songs ever. It's 11 minutes, but not overlong in the slightest! The main guitar part is awesome, made awesome by the octave power of the guitar-bass playing the same thing. The violin's pretty great too! But wow, that bass. That amazing bass. John Wetton was a heck of a bass player.

     Overall, this album is vastly underrated, and if you don't have it, go pick it up as soon as possible!