It was, quite simply, a sound that shook the music world. When King Crimson emerged from the dust of the considerably more oblique and largely absurd trio of Giles, Giles and Fripp—whose one release, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp (Deram, 1968), was aptly titled—nobody could have anticipated that this group would literally change the face of the pop world, and almost single-handedly define a new musical genre: progressive rock. Crimson co-founder/guitarist Robert Fripp has, with a number of subsequent incarnations of Crimson, only partly been successful in distancing his flagship group from that stylistic marker, but in many ways it matters not. As labels become increasingly meaningless, revisiting this seminal album reveals far more than any reductionist categorization can.

Never mind previous CD issues claiming to be "Definitive Editions," "Original Master Editions" and "30th Anniversary Editions." For the first time since its initial release, not just remixed but remastered as well in both stereo and 5.1 surround, the 40th Anniversary Series incarnation of In the Court of the Crimson King is the gold standard against which all previous editions will be measured—and, ultimately, fail. Crimson's entire original discography will, during 2009/2010, be reissued in truly definitive editions, and based on this title and the parallel-release of Red, it's going to be a grand period of rediscovery and just plain discovery, with previously unheard details now audible, and a bevy of bonus tracks, alternate versions and video content made available, in many cases for the first time.

The majority of the reissues are in two-disc editions that feature a new stereo remix on CD (along with some bonus audio material), and a DVD-A that includes, at the very least, MLP Lossless Stereo and 5.1 Surround mixes, a PCM 2.0 stereo mix and DTS 5.1 Digital Surround of the same material and, in some cases, more. But to celebrate Crimson's most commercially successful album, there are three different versions of In the Court of the Crimson King on offer: a standard CD/DVD-A version; a double-CD version that also includes the 2004 Original Master Edition and some additional bonus material; and a whopping six-disc set that includes all of the above plus three more CDs with an album's worth of alternate takes and mixes, a de-clicked transfer of the original vinyl album, live material from 1969 Hyde Park and Fillmore East concerts, the mono version of the album and single radio edits. Which version you choose (or all of the above) depends on just how much a Crimhead you are; clearly, however, there's never been such a severe test of Crimson pathology.

First, the original album...well, almost. Regardless of what format chosen, the album has never sounded this rich, this clear or this powerful. The 5.1 Surround mix takes greater advantage of the rear channels than most surround music mixes, but avoids being anywhere near gimmicky, thanks to Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, who collaborated with Fripp on these and many other of the 40th Anniversary Series editions. From the opening salvo of "21st Century Schizoid Man"—which, over the years has become Crimson's equivalent of "Free Bird" as its most demanded song in performance (despite Fripp's often strict avoidance of it, or anything else that looks back instead of forward)—the sonics are simply stunning. No over-compression or excess normalization here; this is a remix and remaster that honors the spirit of the music. A new mix might be grist for criticism from purists (witness discussions about the Genesis remixes), but Wilson and Fripp avoid any superfluous choices. Instead, the goal is simply to make the album sound the way it always should have sounded, with the benefit of technology that simply didn't exist forty years previously.