Prog rock is born with a bang.

A hell of a lot can be said about King Crimson's immortal debut. It's complex, it's aggressive, it's life changing. As an album it is rarely matched, especially by the pretentious wobbling of most progressive rock bands of the 1970s. Their intelligent mixture of jazz, classical, hard rock and avant-garde musical styles is shattering to any listener brave enough to take the first listen. It doesn't have the hyper-anger ethos of punk, but more of a subversive and confrontational attitude in their relaxed but focused feel that the music puts forward. The album is both accessible to the mainstream and, at the same time, subversive to the trappings of popular music at the time. The aggressive noise-driven sound of the opener "21st Century Schizoid Man" is possible more abrasive and brutal than most music around these days, and much more technical than a lot of the bands around today. The other highlight of the album is the title track, which sounds much like a symphony, with a sound much like a more epic version of a Moody Blues track. If you don't have this album and you love progressive music of any kind, this is definitely needed for your collection. Some of it is harder to get into, but with a lot of listens, it clicks and will possibly become your favorite album.