Red

Description

The title hits like a whip crack: red, the maximum alert zone of the gauge (clearly depicted on the back of the cover, the needle flirting with the extreme mark, when the vehicle is going too fast, the fatal skid threatening at every turn, and one senses the brakes at their limit, unless one quickly uses the ejector seat, not having to emerge unscathed from the final crash). This is, without a doubt, the feeling haunting maestro Fripp at the end of 1974, who, sensing the imminent death of the prog dinosaurs (he is one of the first to use this expression that will become significant) and thus the end of an era, decides to step away from the spotlight to dedicate himself (and this, as we will see much later, for a long time) to more confidential works, without leaving anyone but himself the task of sacrificing his creation (which no longer truly satisfies him), but also not missing the opportunity to write the darkest of testamentary codicils. For this last album, for quite some time, is indeed the black work of King Crimson, a King Crimson stripped down to its vital forces (David Cross has just slammed the door and there won't even be time for Ian MacDonald to reclaim his place as planned), thus reduced to a trio as a symbol of its programmed disappearance, and in fact already effective at the album's release, a structure that allows it to amplify the vehemence of its dark passions (we know how in rock in general, but in progressive rock as well, this type of formation allows for the most total and devastating cohesion), even though the not insignificant contributions of the aforementioned two and other former partners (Mel Collins in particular) still allow for a splendid assessment of a musical adventure that is nothing short of exceptional.