Listen to King Crimson

For no discernible reason, Heavy Blog is Heavy has dubbed this week “Avant-Garde Metal Week.” Not that we’re complaining. HBIH’s random 7-day designation provides us with an opportunity to post about King Crimson, a band responsible for influencing many of the modern progressive metal titans you know and love.

“Avant-Garde Metal” is as difficult a term to define as “progressive” or “alternative” or “punk” or “hipster,” but I guess it’s one of those things that you know when you hear it. Long songs? Jazz experimentation? Proggy noodling? OK, maybe.

Here’s Heavy Blog writer Juular on King Crimson:

… their style of progressive rock and jazz fusion is no longer the defining image of avant-garde music, but at the time of the release of the band’s debut LP, In The Court of the Crimson King, this music was staggering to the listeners. Incorporating heavy amounts of jazz and classical symphonies, In the Court of the Crimson King not only challenged the conventions of typical rock music, they changed its very foundation with one LP. Gone were the days of blues-centric rock music that everyone had grown up with at that point…

Here’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” from that album.