Praying Mantis (band)

Praying Mantis
Praying Mantis live at Sweden Rock Festival 2010.
Background information
Origin	England
Genres	Hard rock, heavy metal
Years active	1974–present
Labels	Arista, Pony Canyon
Members	Chris Troy Tino Troy Andy Burgess Hans in’t Zandt John Cuijpers
Website	Official website

Praying Mantis are an English rock band. Although a part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene, they pursued a musical direction more melodic and AOR-sounding than their contemporaries.

Career

Their formation considerably pre-dated the NWOBHM movement. They were formed in 1974 by the Troy brothers, Tino and Chris, both college students. Like several NWOBHM bands they made their first available recording at Neal Kay's Soundhouse recording studio, which was released as the Soundhouse Tapes EP in 1979.

1980 saw their profile considerably raised with support slots for Iron Maiden and Ronnie Montrose's Gamma. The attention won them a recording contract with Arista Records and they released their best-known work Time Tells No Lies in 1981. Management and line-up instability undermined their success and Arista dropped them. The following year they signed for Jet Records, but two subsequent singles flopped and the band folded. They had recorded a version of the Russ Ballard penned track "I Surrender", but ran into conflict with Rainbow, who went on to release their version, and had a Top 10 worldwide hit. Instead, Praying Mantis recorded another single, "Cheated". It reached No. 69 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1981.

The band maintained a strong fan base in Japan, and when the Troys temporarily reformed Praying Mantis for a NWOBHM nostalgia tour in 1990, they were encouraged by the response to resurrect the band full-time. Their live work was released as Live at Last, and a follow-up studio album Predator in Disguise was released the following year, and the band soldiered on into the new century. A compilation album, The Best of Praying Mantis, was released in 2004. Following further line-up changes, a new album, Sanctuary, was released in the spring of 2009 and has gained worldwide media acclaim.

In 2013 the band announced they are to release a new single in October 2013. The single is to officially introduce new members, [John Cuijpers] (vocals) and [Hans in’t Zandt] (drums) to the bands fanbase after playing Colchester, Ipswich (with support from MGR Records band Kaine) and Cambridge Rock Festival with the brand new line up. A new album called Legacy is due for release early June 2015.

Discography

Studio albums

• Time Tells No Lies (Arista 1981) - UK No. 60
• Throwing Shapes (billed as 'Stratus') (Steel Trax 1984)
• Predator in Disguise (Pony Canyon 1991)
• A Cry for the New World (Pony Canyon 1993)
• To the Power of Ten (Pony Canyon 1995)
• Forever in Time (Pony Canyon 1998)
• Nowhere to Hide (Pony Canyon 2000)
• The Journey Goes On (Pony Canyon 2003)
• Sanctuary (Frontiers 2009)
• Legacy (Frontiers 2015)

Singles

• "Praying Mantis" / "High Roller" 7" (GEM, 1980)
• The Soundhouse Tapes Part 2 ("Captured City" / "The Ripper" / "Johnny Cool") 12" (Ripper Records, 1981)
• "Cheated" / "Thirty Pieces of Silver" / "Flirting With Suicide" / "Panic in the Streets" 2x7" (Arista, 1981)
• "All Day and All of the Night" / "Beads of Ebony" 7" (Arista, 1981)
• "Turn the Tables" / "Tell Me the Nightmare's Wrong" / "A Question of Time" 7" EP (Jet, 1982)
• "Only the Children Cry" / "Who's Life is it Anyway?" / "A Moment in Life" / "Turn the Tables" CD EP (Canyon International, 1993)
• Metalmorphosis CD EP (self-released, 2011)

Compilations

• The Best of Praying Mantis (Pony Canyon 2004)

Lineups

External links

• Official website
• Praying Mantis discography at Discogs
• MusicMight bio
• Interview with Chris Troy (2009)
• Audio Interview with Praying Mantis from Hard Rock Hell Festival 2011