Praying Mantis
Time Tells No Lies

The Praying Mantis... ah, good memories! ...this takes us back to the early '80s, when we spent entire afternoons kicking a frayed ball on dusty fields, yet it feels like yesterday! ...it feels like yesterday that a friend of mine, almost in his thirties, gave me a box full of more or less "hard'n'heavy" records that he no longer needed after his musical tastes shifted towards pounding disco rhythms...

And among them, this is the one that stood out from the crowd, along with the debut of the Iron... those Iron who immediately gained the success we know, which then became global... And the Praying Mantis? ...After this striking debut, they practically disappeared! ...vanished for at least a decade, until the early '90s when they decided to team up with ex-Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno for a concert recorded in the Land of the Rising Sun, later released as "Live At Last".
Since then, a series of wonderful albums such as "A Cry For The New World" (1993) ..."Forever In Time" (1998), "Nowhere To Hide" (2000), up to the latest "The Journey Goes On" (2003).
However, acknowledging a couple of setbacks is necessary, such as "To The Power Of Ten" (1995) after the microphone was temporarily held by Gary Barden (ex MSG-Group) who on more than one occasion showed his limitations, missing the high notes, and then... the live dimension... indeed, both "Live At Last" (1990) due to a terrible audio mix and the subsequent "Captured-Alive in Tokyo City" (1996), unfortunately featuring a poor Gary Barden on vocals, were half flops...
But the Mantis are closely tied to the Maiden for at least two more reasons, mainly because from the just mentioned "Live at Last" recordings to today, their lead guitar is played by Dennis Stratton who performed on Iron's first two albums, and for that
Clive Burr who replaced the unwell drummer Bruce Bisland during the 1996 tour.

But let's get back to our "Time Tells No Lies", a great example of the N.W.O.B.H.M. which included bands like Saxon, Def Leppard, Angel Witch, and go on... The album opens fast and determined with "Cheated" and it's immediately melodic hard rock bordering A.O.R., a song with a catchy chorus riding a well-balanced rhythm base, the next track is a cover of Ray Davies' "All Day And All Of The Night," performed with originality and good taste nonetheless.
"Running For Tomorrow" makes you want to grab a guitar and start jumping like crazy around the room, with a riff as fast as it is effective, accompanied by a flawless drumming. The same goes for "Rich City Kids," in "Lovers To The Grave" the mantis slip in one of those "tear-off" songs, melodic and slow in the right measure, enriched by beautiful tempo changes at the end, all with fantastic melodies and choruses galore, I wonder which girl will be able to resist after listening to it, hehehe!...
"Panic in the Streets" is the classic galloping pum-tatapum, where the rhythm section definitely takes the lead. "Beads Of Ebony" once again demonstrates our artist's ability to naturally blend an incredible melodic taste with the heavy essence of the era...
They close as best as possible with "Flirting With Suicide" and that "Children Of The Earth" which acts as a closing to all the (excellent!) characteristics expressed in the previous tracks...

In conclusion, I've often wondered why the Mantis have faded from memory over time, and I've answered that they probably lacked the luck, skill, and cunning to encounter the right producer at the right time, a chance perhaps seized by the Iron... Like many other bands from that era, they still have decent sales success almost exclusively in their homeland, England, of course, and in Japan, a land that seems not to deny success to the "forgotten"... From there I've gotten all their CDs and I must say I've rarely spent my money so well on music...
Ah, if only my knees would still allow me, how I'd love to return to those dusty fields, dreaming once again!... Up the Mantis!