King Crimson - THRAK, Album Review

So, I'm reviewing something that is not a game, In fact, it's an album, an older album from 1995. It's one of my favourite albums, and If you like Tool, you should definitely listen to this album.

This is a rather lengthy text review. I run through the album track by track, so beware, it's a bit of a read. First though, if you're not familiar with the band, I'll run through a quick history of them, and why I think the album is worth listening to.

A short Intro to King Crimson
King Crimson, are an older band from the late 60's who were one of the pioneers of the prog rock movement. Their album "In The Court Of The Crimson King" is a very respected album, and is considered one of their greatest.

The band changed many times throughout the years, have only three real solid lineups. The classic Fripp/Collins/Wetton/Bruford line-up in the 70's, The Fripp/Belew/Levin/Bruford lineup from the 80's and the Fripp/Belew/Gunn/Mastelotto line up from the mid 90's onwards.


The lineup on THRAK is the first to feature new Drummer Pat Mastelotto and WARR guitarist/bass player Trey Gunn. However, THRAK is a special album as it still retains Tony Levin and Bill Bruford too, adding an amazing lineup of two bassists/drummers.

This was the first album I fell in love with by King Crimson, and it still sound very fresh and heavy today. The tracks contained on it are a wonderful mix of prog rock, classic rock, and are uplifting at times, however, they may also leave you with a chilling feeling. I guess this is why I love it so much. The album is a fantastic varied ride, and it explores almost all of what I love about Crimson.

Track by Track runthrough

The first track of the album VROOOM, starts softly and erupts into a wonderful mix of an upbeat bass line and distorted guitar. It shows the band as what they are, a great group of musicians who produce wonderful instrumental tracks. It sometimes takes a little break and leaves only fripps' wonderful picking, as the bass softly works it way in, to appear again as a twisting riff with full sounding drums. Towards the end of the songs, the drums really take focus as we march into the second track of the album.

"Coda-Marine 475" continues where "VROOM" left off, becoming a twisted assortment of wonderful music. This time however, we are treated to hearing belew speak at us through a filter. he repeats Marine and string of numbers. Throughout the track, we are treated to both Belew and Fripp wailing in the background on guitars...leaving slowly.

Tony Levin, Truely a god amongst musicians.

The third track "Dinosaur" is one of my favourite tracks of all time, starting off with strings, in the same manner as VROOOM. it moves on to a harsh riff played on guitar, and a soft low harsh tone from the bass members. throughout, the bass and drums continue on. At this point, Fripp/Belew's playing takes a more background role, that is somewhat jarring at times. Belew really shines on the track, singing beautifully and from the heart, as he sings the chorus, you will hear the bass play the wonderful melody underneath, following and bending with him. This song is one of most likely to get stuck in your head. There's a few really nice moments with Belew's singing here that make me really respect him as an artist, The song takes a little break in the moment allowing for what I assume to be the mellotron to play with levin on chapman stick or bass, it really slows down quite beautifully and shows the power of having two bass players in a band, especially one as awesome as Levin. The track however crashes back into full force after a few moments of silence, ending beautifully and leading us into the next track)

"Walking On Air" is a beautiful song with soft bass and sweeping guitar, and soft drums. Adrian Belew's voice hear is really beautiful, and it's a nice change from the harsh tones heard on the album so far. Towards the end of the song, you're treated with a lovely solo from Fripp, it slowly relaxes you and moves onto the next track

"BBoom" starts off with a chilling soundscape for the first minute. However, will the soundscape continues, you are treated to some wonderful drums by Bruford and Mastelotto. They both play as the background soundscape groes ever more chilling until the track breaks out at 2:35, with only drums and a chilling low frequency sound behind, you really get the nice feel of two drummers working together to create something special.
It all ends rather suddenly and brings us to "Inner Garden I", a  track that starts with a chilling detuned sounding guitar, with an awesome sad sounding song by Belew. A similar song to walking on air, it's a strange direction it takes the album in. The track ends with belew singing convincingly "Don't leave me alone!" and we are brought to....

"People" the song kicks off with a funky bass riff, and entering funky sound guitar not too dissimilar to "Matte Kudasai (Alternate version)" from their "Discipline" album. it's a really upbeat song and the song most likely to get stuck in your head on the album with it's super catchy chorus. Belew also manages to twist his words in this song, almost fooling you at times. The track has an awesome breakdown in the middle which features wonderful playing from everyone in the band, The bass playing here is really special. A superb track and one of my favourite feel good songs, it even ends with a chilling theme leading into...
"Radio I" a chilling soundscape, short that prepares you for the sadder tone of the next track "One Time". Similar to both "walking on air" and "inner garden" it features belew at his best, with lovely soft guitar, bass and drums, it has a rather chilling soundscape in the centre of the song with a wonderful bass drop or two.

"Radio II" is more of the beautiful but chilling soundscape by fripp, and leads straight into "Inner Garden II", a Continuation of "Inner Garden I" (Well what else did you expect). The song is chilling and beautiful but short...

The album starts to come to a close with "Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream", with a funky bass and guitar combo similar to people, with a chorus the same as the title, features a really nice shift between chorus and verses. Belew also uses vocal effects for the chorus that rhymes rather a lot. filled with emotion and a funky, funky theme. The song has a wonderful breakdown and features again a lovely mix of smooth and jarring guitar. The album would be perfectly ended here, BUT~

It continues on with both "VROOOM VROOOM" and "VROOOM VROOOM-Coda" alternate versions of the albums openers, Very nice, and chilling. This is probably the only part of the album that I really don't like too much, however, in the same way the bass really carries through on VROOOM, it does here, and shows how nice it can be to have so many great musicians in a band."VROOOM VROOM-Coda" is a really really twisted version of before, and is the close of the album.

Final Thoughts and why you should listen

The King Crimson of late featuring the new lineup.

The music got very different, and they developed a new sound that you could recognise as them immediately. Compared to the crimson of old, who could be mistaken at times for other prog bands.
I feel this album is a nice change, and is very easy to listen to, for older crimson fans, it takes a slower turn than some of the 80's Crimson. It also starts to show how the band started developing with their new lineup with gunn/mostaletto. 





Unlike some of the other King Crimson albums which had a similar feel to others, THRAK remains an album with a very specific sound of new (2000+) and 80's King Crimson. As for why I mentioned Tool earlier, This album is fairly heavy at times, and is probably the perfect album to listen to first if you like Tool and appreciate the structure of their music. Give the album a shot, and when you find yourself listening to it more than Lateralus, check out the rest of their music, within a year, it'll grow on you without a doubt

Cthulhu Saves The World, now on steam !

The fantastic Cthulhu Saves the World, is now on steam, along with Breath of Death VII. Previously an awesome little game on the indie section of Xbox Live Arcade, The games have been ported to PC with much added content.

I had bought Cthulhu Saves the World on Xbox live arcade when I moved house around 6 months ago, I loved it but did not play too much due to me both working full time, and the platform it was on (I play a lot of PC games usually). When I sold my xbox 360, I regretted not playing it more, However, The game is now available on Steam finally!

The game has a lot of new content for PC including 720p and fullscreen modes, New insane difficulty, Director's commentary, New game mode Cthulhu's Angels, Four new playable characters, New story, New bosses, Unlockable Game Art, Collectable bestiary, Easter eggs, Rebalanced gameplay, Celebrity cameo's and so much more!

So go buy the Super Hyper Enhanced Championship Edition Alpha Diamond DX Plus Alpha FES HD - Premium Enhanced Game Of the Year Collector's Edition (without avatars!) Today at Steam or Gamersgate for the super low price of £1.79 or for both Cthulhu Saves The World and Breath of Death VII at the shockingly good deal of £1.79, Go Here ! If you want to be super awesome, you can buy both of them individually to support the fantastic developers at Zeboyd Games, and their next game.

Hope you guys pick this up. I should have a review and insight into the game later on in the week hopefully. So keep your eyes peeled for more

Maybe I should blog about games?

So, I'm currently unemployed, in between hunting for jobs, I still do one of the things that's kept me happy over the years. I may start some text reviews or let's plays and post them here.

If anyone ever sees this, feel free to suggest games for me to play. I think my first title will be Devil May Cry 4, Since i've not played that game in years ;) so bring on the brooding white haired men in red !