Nuovo Metal? Well, at least, that was the working title for King Crimson’s new release "The Power to Believe". The first full-length release since 2000’s "The ConstruKction of Light", Power continues with the pared-down quartet of Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Trey Gunn, and Pat Mastelotto. In a way it is hard to listen to KC without the sublime input of the rhythm gods, Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, but to be fair, Trey and Pat are outstanding in their own right, owing nuthin’ to nobody. They bring a heavy rock sensibility to the music as compared to a more bouncing jazz-skewed sensibility afforded by Bill and Tony. The new album deals out a pretty heavy dose of metallic music.

Overall, Power is lean, athletic, cohesive, confident, and is more focused than ConstruKction. KC recently toured with Tool and had been at work on and off for two years as they redefined their approach for the new CD. Of course, two years worth of writing is going to produce a lot of good music that doesn’t quite jibe with the tracks that make the final cut. In fact, last year’s EP teaser release, "Happy With What You Have to be Happy With", collected a bunch of good tracks that otherwise would have remained on the shelf and also gave us a preview with Happy and an acoustic version of "Eyes Wide Open". It’s also worth noting that the KC’s live CD-EP, "Level Five", recorded when they were on tour with Tool in 2001, contains live versions of songs that appear on Power, confirming that the band was working out live what it wanted to put down in the studio.

Power’s title comes from a song found on Adrian Belew’s "Op Zop Too Wah" CD entitled "All Her Love Is Mine". Toward the end of the recording sessions of the new KC CD, Belew sang some of his recently written haiku poetry through a vocoder to generate short, voice-driven pieces that would simultaneously break up the hard rock–tinged songs and yet tie all the tunes together. The decision was made to use extracts from his previously recorded song. It works very well indeed. The opening a cappella piece, "The Power to Believe I", has Belew singing alone in the darkness that suffuses the album.

"Level Five", the next track, kicks out the jams with minor chords portending the bleak nature of what is to come. Mastelotto’s drumming drips testosterone—even his electronically generated beats—at turns hard-driving, crunching, and techno-inspired. Fripp and Belew play their trademark mirroring of each other’s guitar with calls and responses falling over each other. Trey Gunn provides outstanding bass support, invoking the ghost of John Wetton blam-blamming his overdriven bass. With hard thudding guitar thrusts and grunts that recall the end of Mars, the Bringer of War from Holst’s The Planets (Matt, have I gotten your attention yet?), the 'in your face' insistence of the music goes for the throat and becomes an secondary overture. The chromatic playing by Belew and Fripp recalls several other tunes by KC, going as far back, perhaps, as the excellent "Red" album.

As fast as it came, "Level Five" leaves the building and the introspective ballad (hey, all the metal bands throw in a ballad to hold the ladies’ interest) "Eyes Wide Open", antithesis to Five in sound but not in intent, takes the stage speaking to missed opportunities. Belew’s voice has never sounded more melodious—even more so than on the Discipline album’s "Matte Kudasai" or "Frame by Frame"—and the ensemble playing carries Belew aloft. Everyone is in sync, knowing how to play off each other instinctively. Trey Gunn gets a brief solo at 3’15” and if you like the sound of his cool Warr touch guitar, doing double duty as guitar and bass, I strongly urge you to check out his CD "The Trey Gunn Band: Live Encounter" (First World Records).

"EleKtriK" continues in the metallic vein but is a much more agile piece than Five and has some exciting, adept finger play by Fripp and Belew that is countered by crunching drum and bass.

"Facts of Life" is another one of Belew’s angry songs and is sung in a gravelly, strident voice decrying six billion ants crawling across a plate who take without giving. It doesn’t take a genius to see the obvious reference to humanity, and the song’s reference to Abraham and Ishmail (Israel and the Muslim world) is particularly chilling and timely. If you’ve ever been to a KC concert you know Fripp sits in a chair for the whole concert. His demeanor might make you think he’s busy counting the unusual time signatures, or that he’s serenely “in” the music. Whatever the reason is, it isn’t that he doesn’t have fire in him. Fripp’s blistering solo in "Facts", starting at 3’23”, is incendiary and angry like I haven’t heard him play on a KC CD in years.

"The Power to Believe II" is infused with Javanese gamelan-sounding percussion and guitar work and recalls parts of Nuages from KC’s CD "Three of a Perfect Pair". The quartet has some breathing room to flex and play off each other. Once Belew finishes his vocoder-tweaked recitation, Fripp comes to the fore and carries the song to its conclusion with diaphanous soundscapes of guitar loops and effects that are frequently heard in his solo work. The track comes across as an ode on the beauty and fragility of life.

"Dangerous Curves" opens slowly and builds into a finely played quartet of tension and gravity, taking us back to Five. This is very much a background rhythm track with not much going on in the fore until the middle section where the guitars begin to wake from their slumber culminating in Fripp unleashing a hellacious, sustained cord of dread. If the end of "Dangerous Curves" reminds of the end chord in The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life", then the next song, "Happy With What You Have to be Happy With", is KC’s "Helter Skelter" tinged with Rob Zombie. Happy delivers a white-hot rant about complacency and lack of aspiration. Humorously, the lyrics describe writing a song: “I’m going to have to write a chorus/ We’re gonna need to have a chorus….” Belew’s singing through Happy reflects the great chromatic guitary back and forth he and Fripp do so well, almost telepathically.

The hard rock pendulum swings immediately after this admonition to be happy, to the fragility of Belew’s repeated invocation in "The Power to Believe III". This, for me, is the climax of the CD. Soon after the recitation, titanic, distorted thudding answers back, as if to say that the power to believe is not the same as the power gained from belief (Is belief rewarded? Carefully listen to the lyrics of Happy); that the “voice” has been duped and that its odds of overcoming the darkness are less likely than winning five Power Ball drawings in a row. And then the music stops. Completely. After what seems like an eternity, but in reality is just a second or two, the music begins again, with horror echoing hope. Maybe we’re supposed to be happy with what we’ve got because if we go scrambling around for more, we loose track of what we have that we enjoy. Whew! Heavy. You want God, you get Goth!

The playing on this CD is the most inspired I’ve heard KC play over several albums. Pat Mastelotto gets a special shout-out. His drumming keeps the music sharp and focused. It’s unusual when drums inform music with dread to the same degree that guitars and bass do, but Mastelotto wrings angst from his drums. As somber as Power is, it is, by turns, exhilarating, unexpected, and satisfying. The successful cohesion of disparate tracks held together by Adrian Belew’s “fragile” vocals renders this work a momentous concept album. I’m already looking forward to their next one! But please, next time…a little levity!

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The Power to Believe I: A capella
Level Five
Eyes Wide Open
EleKtriK
Facts of Life: Intro
Facts of Life
The Power to Believe II
Dangerous Curves
Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With
The Power to Believe III
The Power to Believe IV: Coda