Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Praying Mantis
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2018
Runtime: 57:55
Rating: 3.5/5
»Gravity« is the eleventh studio album overall from Praying Mantis, the long-lived standard-bearers of rock’n’roll and, not least, heavy metal from the United Kingdom (eleventh if you count “Throwing Shapes”, which came out under the name Stratus). Praying Mantis are a band that contributed a serious chunk to shaping classic heavy metal, since they were part of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement, even though they quickly veered off into AOR waters.
With Dutch singer John Cuijpers and a drummer with the exotic-sounding name Hans in ‘t Zandt (no, not a drum machine, don’t worry), the band clearly found some stability, and three years ago the excellent album »Legacy« came out. “Legacy” really is a brilliant record, one on which Praying Mantis, after six dry years, nicely picked up the thread of their own body of work. It took them a few years, and they really polished every arrangement down to the last detail. Now, »Gravitiy« of course follows the musical direction and guidelines of its predecessor, but it’s no longer as sharp in freshness and ideas as »Legacy« was.
Stylistically, Praying Mantis sit pretty close to Lionheart and Airraid when you dig through their contemporaries from the same generation of bands. You could also tie them to the Uriah Heep era between 1995 and 1998, as well as to the work of Sweet. Praying Mantis forge bombastic, glittering chorus melodies by slyly dressing them up with harmonic choir vocals, which deepens the theatrical drama and cranks up the pomp and bombast in the songs. Still, “Gravity” grabs the listener from the »wrong end« this time. Keep It Alive owes some of its riff inspiration to the legendary Thin Lizzy and gives no particular reason to be the album opener. What’s more, the next one, Mantis Anthem, is a totally superfluous experiment, propped up by electronic samples, and for a band of Praying Mantis’s caliber and with such a long track record it comes across as childish rather than mature. From the song title alone you can guess at utterly cheap lyrics that urge you to clap along and bleat in unison. Infantile, no two ways about it. Time Can Heal and 39 Years then slowly get the album into proper shape, and only the fifth track, the title song Gravity, is the one you’ve been waiting for from Praying Mantis. An excellent, mildly dark mini-epic, packed with bombast, built on a minor key, decked out with those trademark twin guitar harmonies in thirds and a grabby chorus. Luckily the rest of the album follows, and from here on it keeps rolling through colorful shifts of mood. Ghosts of the Past keeps the epic feel going and deepens the gloom on the album, while the band clings more tightly to symphonic elements (which also color the closing Fnal Destination more heavily). From here all the way to the end, the remaining tracks hold the new album »Gravity« at a high level of quality, exactly the one a fan demands from a band like this. Even the ballad The Last Summer, with a few more acoustic touches, carries a mildly obscure posture and a sense of tragedy, without a whiff of sugary overkill. The soft Foreign Affair brings a special detour, where with its signature AOR pose the band gets closer than anywhere else on the album to eighties pop rock. Then Shadow Of Love and Final Destination deliver another bigger dose of adrenaline-fueled rush for the big finale, and »Gravity« closes in a highly vibrant mood, a perfect cross of hard rock, AOR and heavy metal elements. Really typical of the band.
Mid eight sections are seasoned with the signature guitar soloing, and the compositions as a rule include pre-choruses too! It’s all put together again very boldly, in the spirit of big-time experience and routine. Except for a somewhat stodgy choice of songs at the start of the album. So Praying Mantis stay true to their musical vision, which walks a refined middle line where elements of heavy metal, hard rock and AOR get along successfully. They keep on persisting and striving for perfection of that musical vision, which gives exceptional primacy to musicality, something Praying Mantis have carefully nurtured and held on to through all the years of defiance, ups and downs. And they’ve lasted through it all. So the story continues with »Gravity«.
Lineup
John Cuijpers – vocals
Tino Troy – guitar, backing vocals
Chris Troy – bass guitar, backing vocals
Andy Burgess – guitar, backing vocals
Hans in’t Zandt – drums
Track List
01. Keep It Alive
02. Mantis Anthem
03. Time Can Heal
04. 39 Years
05. Gravity
06. Ghosts Of The Past
07. Destiny In Motion
08. The Last Summer
09. Foreign Affair
10. Shadow Of Love
11. Final Destination
