We know you’re used to hearing hot leaks and new sounds in this space, but we’re having a hard time relegating the latest archival King Crimson release from DGM Live to “Dust This Off” status. It’s not just that prog rock is in vogue (see: Mastodon, Coheed and Cambria, the Mars Volta, etc.). No, the real reason we had to share this version of “The Great Deceiver,” recorded on April 29, 1974 at the Stanley Warner Theatre in Pittsburgh, is that it’s just harder, gutsier and bolder than much of what crosses our desks.

This show was long among this particular lineup’s most-bootlegged gigs, at least until guitarist and not-bandleader Robert Fripp included most of it (from pristine multitrack sources) in the groundbreaking 1992 box set The Great Deceiver. The complete show—uncut save for one tape drop—was released for the first time on Monday as a download.

Singer and bassist John Wetton, long before the excesses of Asia, sounds lean and hungry. Bill Bruford, who recently announced his retirement, is heard at his prime, snare-drum beats ringing like gunshots. Violinist David Cross, increasingly squashed by this fierce band, handles the mellotron. And Fripp, in addition to incendiary guitar, provides a pithy single-line observation of his first visit to the Vatican:

Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the Virgin Mary.