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I just listened to four King Crimson live albums with their current three-drummer line-up (three of which were three disks) and I can answer the question "does King Crimson really need three drummers?" with a rousing "King Crimson definitely does not need three drummers." Long answer: "Lark's Tongue in Aspic, Pt. 1" aside, there's not a single moment on any of these albums that truly benefits from having multiple drummers, because there are virtually no moments on these albums where either the drummers aren't all trying too hard not to get in others' ways that you can't even fucking tell there are multiple drummers or the stickwork is laughably over-busy and ill-fitting (and even at its most cluttered, the three drummers together aren't half as octopus-armed as one, count 'em, one, Christian Vander or Jaki Liebezeit, heavens forbid a Tony Oxley or Milford Graves!) Honestly, the first half of "Indiscipline" off of Live in Vienna is one of the cringiest instrumentals I've ever witnessed, somehow distilling in purely musical form the same quintessential godawfulness that is the hallmark of Petey (Hop)Sinfield's lyrical contributions to the band's "golden era." (It's still not as excruciating as the Chicago "Islands," where they go Kenny-G-adult-contemporary-yacht-pomp on our asses.) The whole thing is a gimmick, which isn't an inherently bad thing by any means, but it's an unsuccessful, pretentious gimmick, and those are the worst kind. Then again, if sloppy tom fills are your catnip, have at it.

And I can answer the potentially more pressing question "did they finally get a vocalist who doesn't suck?" with an equally assured and spirited "fuckin' 'course not  - it's the Crims, ya' dims." New dude's (or dudes are?) still better than John Wetton, though, but that's as faint as praise comes.

Thee Kyngez ov Krymzun are still kind of too prickly to stoop to the putrid asinine sentimental vapidity that exemplifies most modern non-avant-prog, even from former genre masters (which they never were) but if you still need proof they've gotten equally as conservative as Yes or whomthefuckever in their should-be-retired years, it's here in great green gobs. Listening to another crappy "Letters" or fine-but-indistinguishable "Level Five" I can't help but remember the old yarn about Henry Cow disbanding at near the top of their powers because they found themselves transformed against their will into "just another rock band, playing the same thing every night" (compare "Living in the Heart of the Beast" with "Erk Gah"), something that Frippy boy clearly doesn't find limiting or frustrating in the least. Henry Cow, of course, were trillions of times better at their worst than King Crimson were at their best. Of course. 

Of course, I can't even fucking stand "Epitaph" or Red, so actual fans will likely find these affairs a bit more positive than I. I will admit Mel Collins' flute's always a treat when it pops up and his sax is probably the most consistently non-terrible instrument here, though the guitars get more highlights.

The weirdest thing about this line-up is that their takes on "Pictures of a City" are uniformly better than their "21st Century Schizoid Man"s.

The other two pertinent questions all this raises are "are these releases really necessary?" to which I reply "yeahno, not really, like at all" and "why'd you go on this crap attack marathon in the first place?" Honestly, I don't fucking know. Glutton for prog punishment, I guess. Lizard and the perpetually underappreciated Earthbound (no, not Mother 2) remain the only truly exceptional/great-ish releases in their discography.

Also, their 70s Bowie cover sounds like 80s Bruce Springsteen and yeeeeeesh it's as much of a misfire as you'd expect these guys imitating that guy would be.

If you do venture into this hellscape (not in a fun metal way), Live in Vienna is where to go for noodly atmospheric improv (still not a gargantuan amount) and Live in Chicago is the punchiest, most energized (for the first disk) and full-sounding and, bonus points for me, has twenty minutes of Lizard material! (Then again, the Viennese version of "Cirkus" is better and the suite is all of least good parts of the album stuck together in an inferior version, so bonus points redacted.)