Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Praying Mantis
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2009
Runtime: 51.02
Rating: 4.5/5
Praying Mantis go back to before the N.W.O.B.H.M. explosion of 1980. Even so, plenty of critics lump them in with bands like Saxon, Iron Maiden, Tygers Of Pan Tang or Diamond Head, which can be pretty misleading. Maybe the compilation Metal For Muthas, from that very year, is most to blame, since its list of artists puts Praying Mantis right next to the typical N.W.O.B.H.M. names. What always set Praying Mantis apart from that pack is the classic hard rock feel and the care they take to squeeze every drop out of pure melody in anthemic choruses. You also won’t find that properly villainous, dark vibe of pure-blooded heavy metal in their music. Still, one thing that does link Praying Mantis with Iron Maiden is the simple fact that no fewer than three former Iron Maiden members (Paul Di’Anno, Dennis Straton, Clive Burr) later turned up in Praying Mantis during a stopover in their careers. So the philosophy of music as a means of expression isn’t so far apart between Iron Maiden and Praying Mantis after all, despite the gap in genre and energy and the gap in commercial success.
In 2009, brothers Tino (guitar) and Chris Troy (bass) are still holding Praying Mantis together. The style stays the same with “Sanctuary” too, and when it comes to Praying Mantis it’s strictly unmistakable. Praying Mantis remain a kind of lost missing link: too soft for heavy metal and too hard for AOR. Still, going by the main melodic lines and that general, very specific air of melancholy, it’s not hard to tell they’re a band from the British Isles. The band layers three-part harmonies on the guitars and puts the guitar riff front and center, yet it leans just as heavily on polished multi-part vocal harmonies. That’s why the atmospheric peaks of the songs are, as a rule, caught in melodically infectious choruses that quickly make friends even with a “superficial” ear. The central role goes to a hard rock voice that’s bright, crystal clear and, first and foremost, subordinate to getting the most out of the melody in Praying Mantis’s music. Add the care for beefing up the atmosphere with simple but important keyboard tricks, which also points to a softening of sound and style, and still Praying Mantis remain a strictly recognizable, one-of-a-kind voice in British melodic rock.
There are moments on the new album, like the song Touch The Rainbow, that Iron Maiden boss Steve Harris would be very fond of. As a counterweight, toward the end of the album we run into a song like Highway, where Praying Mantis swerve so far into classic AOR waters that bringing up the spotless energy of Journey’s sermon is no longer out of place. Those are, so to speak, the album’s two “extremes”. The truth about Praying Mantis, “Sanctuary” included, lies somewhere in between. Easiest to just call it “melodic Praying Mantis hard rock”.
So with “Sanctuary” the band keeps its backbone standing tall. That means it cultivates and develops its new material on the trademarks of its own musical expression, wisely staying on solid ground, in the waters where it feels best. Put plainly, it stays true to its own tradition. New vocalist and new band member Mike Freeland is the only novelty worth mentioning on “Sanctuary”. His voice slots perfectly into the spirit and character of Praying Mantis. He’s got all the basic attributes needed to keep the Praying Mantis energy spotless, across the albums of the past catalog as well as the present one. On that front the band hit the nail right on the head. That doesn’t mean he’s the best possible singer for Praying Mantis, though. Think of Tony O’Hora (The Sweet), with a slightly more “stretchy” range in vocal acrobatics, or Bernie Shaw, today’s Uriah Heep singer, far more charismatic back in the Stratus days. There’s still plenty of room left to maneuver at Praying Mantis even after Freeland’s arrival as singer. So what Freeland lacks is a bit more expressive charisma and a more recognizable color to his voice. Otherwise, his execution is technically top-notch and, in Praying Mantis’s case, completely sufficient for building the unique atmosphere that belongs to the band.
After all these years of defiance, with a band that survived plenty of hard times and, after thirty years of sticking it out, was unfairly overlooked on the horizon, Praying Mantis keep on “Sanctuary” exactly what every music gourmet is looking for. They still deliver their own unique story along with a freshness of expression. The songs are on par with each other: there are no peaks, but there’s also not a single track you could call an outright filler that wastes the listener’s time and the record’s space. So we’ve got 11 new, maximally polished Praying Mantis songs in front of us, with a dynamic, highly flowing course of events, by far the most thrilling for fans of the band’s catalog so far and for everyone out there who’s after melodically flawless compactness in hard rock. “Sanctuary” is another excellent album that keeps up the quality level the band set high with its predecessors “Forever In Time” (1998), “Nowhere To Hide” (2000) and “The Journey Goes On” (2003), still unblemished. The favorites on “Sanctuary” are, this time around, strictly your pick, dear friends of music.
Lineup
Mike Freeland – vocals
Tino Troy – guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Andy Burgess – guitar, backing vocals, keyboards
Chris Troy – bass, backing vocals, keyboards
Benjy Reid – drums, percussion
Production
Andrew Riley
Track list
01. In Time (5:43)
02. Restless Heart (5:10)
03. Tears In The Rain (5:09)
04. So High (4:45)
05. Turn The Tide/Lonely Way Home (5:35)
06. Touch The Rainbow (4:08)
07. Threshold Of A Dream (4:15)
08. Playing God (5:39)
09. Highway (4:58)
10. Sanctuary (6:24)
