CLASSIC ROCK PRESENTS: PROGNOSIS 10

It begins with operatic Goth beauty with the incomparable Tarja Turunen's 'Anteroom (edit)'. This is a relaxing calm before the storm to come. Also Eden's 'Seeing Red' is a synth soaked intricate piece of prog. This is followed by superb Touchstone's 'Zinomorph (live)' with a massive booming bass, and crunching guitars. The vocals of Kim Serviour are awesome and this has energy and power.

Hawkwind are next with a track from "Blood of the Earth", 'Prometheus'. This is a brilliant song with a fantastic melody. It has a Mystical feel helped by an Ancient sound, of psychedelic guitars. Even the vocals here are hyped into psychedelic territory and the sonic shapes. You have to love those lyrics; "The sound and fury of a sonic solution, upon a seer he's a master of time, mandrake messiah on a gravity wafer, he's an exotic he's a man of machine, Prometheus rises in a rush of sound, the power of the ancient light he found, the secrets of the stars act in his space, defies the laws of physics to continue the race". It is a fantastic melodic space romp. I love the way it drives along only to shatter half way through with an Indian Sitar. It revels in a psychedelic mood here and simply blitzes in true Hawkwind style.

Apocalyptica is next with a thrashy instrumental 'At the Gates of Manala'. This is very heavy and quite complex. The comp gets even heavier with Talanas who crunch out 'Diaphora'. The death growl vocals and Meshuggah riffs are extreme. This is extreme tech thrash with gruesome dark vocals contrasted by Opeth like clean vox. Too heavy for my tastes but it is perhaps as heavy as it gets on a Prognosis comp.

Syzygy are a fantastic band and they are often on these comps. Here they are represented with 'Vanitas' and this is live and exciting. Jurojin follow with 'The Equinox' featuring manic tom toms and acoustics with relaxing quiet vocals. Very soothing after all the thrash earlier.

Back to thrash metal with Enslaved and their 'Ethica Odini'. The extreme speed and death metal riffs are accompanied by black metal dark growls. I certainly have no interest in this rather disturbing metal.

The Windmill ends the CD with 'Don't Be Afraid', 10 mins of flute driven pastoral easy listening. It is a great track but this is the weirdest Prognosis comp ever. It is a poor sampler, way too heavy for the average listener and yet does not gel together with pastoral opera, Neo and death metal, not a good combination. I would dare to say it's worth a listen for at least 4 tracks but this is perhaps the worst prognosis sampler to date.