The history of PRAYING MANTIS could easily serve as a source material for a Wim Wenders film. A part of the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement, they gained both respect and status with their debut album “Time Tells No Lies”, unarguably one of the best albums of that era, but they failed to gain the publicity as other, similar sounding bands, like IRON MAIDEN and early DEF LEPPARD. Lack of a proper record company among other problems led to the Troy bros to put the band in a hiatus for about ten years.
Fast forward to early 90’s, while in U.K. and U.S. melodic hard rock addressed only to middle class workers with mid-life crisis, in Japan the flame blew strong: Japanese fans never forgot and thirst for a new PRAYING MANTIS album never quenched, thus the Troy bros reformed the band in order to play a couple of shows and for a new live album, however quickly released “Predator in Disguise” marking a new era for the band. For the next decade PRAYING MANTIS will be enjoying a second youth in Japan, releasing some of the best albums of their discography and the monumental live album “Captured Alive in Tokyo City”. Funny how it is, while the band was popular in the other side of the world, in their hometown they were considered dead and gone. I still recall stories from older fans, that during the 90’s ignored the 90’s albums and firmly believed that PRAYING MANTIS had only one album, the debut.
Anyway, nowadays PRAYING MANTIS continue to perform and record, this time both in Japan and in Europe, releasing one album after the other, this time with a more solid line-up and in the days of the internet I feel that they enjoy the status they deserve.
So what do we have here. This is a very-very, VERY-VERY special box set album, for me a gift toward the die hard PRAYING MANTIS fans, that includes four discs with two live recordings in Nagoya, JAPAN (that could be quite far from here!!).
The first two discs include the performance on November 24th 1993 when the bad hit the road to promote their (for many of us) best album to date, and that would be “A Cry For The New World” with a setlist that goes like this:
01. A Cry for The New World
02. Can’t See the Angels
03. Turn The Tables
04. Cheated
05. Dream On
06. Lovers To the Grave
07. Only The Children Cry
08. Whose Life Is It Anyway
09. Dangerous
10. A Moment in Life
11. Flirting with Suicide
12. Journeyman
13. Letting Go
14. Rise Up Again
15. Captured City
16. Children Of the Earth
with mister Mark Thompson-Smith (yes the ONSLAUGHT guy) handling the vocals, Bruce Bisland in the drums and mister Gary Flounder behind the keys. As you may notice, most of the set list consist mostly songs of their very first album (adored by the Japanese fans) and the latest “A cry…” while early hit single “Turn the tables” is a great addition. “Predator…” is represented with “Can’t see the Angels” my all time favorite P.M. track and to whine pointlessly I’d say that I would like to listen “Time slipping away” and “Borderline” but its OK.
Second album dates back to November 11th 1998, still in Nagoya, Japan with the band having released two more albums “To the power of ten” (1995) and “Forever in time” (1998). This time Tony O’Hora is the vocalist and Lew Lawson does the keys. Set list in this one includes songs from all their albums, alongside with “Turn the tables”(apparently a live classic one at the time of the recording):
01. Wasted Years
02. The Messiah
03. A Cry for The New World
04. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
05. Remember My Name
06. Valley Of The Kings
07. Forever In Time
08. Turn The Tables
09. The Day the Sun Turned Cold
10. Rise Up Again
11. Best Years
12. Children Of The Earth
13. Can’t See The Angels
14. Band Introductions
15. Letting Go
Still my beloved “Can’t see the angels” is here alongside with “Forever in time”, “Don’t be afraid of the dark” and “The day the sun turned cold” another great song from “Forever…” album.
There are few things to be said for these recordings: While I enjoyed O’Hora’s vocals I feel that Mark Thompson-Smith was a more suitable vocalist, but both of them are more that enough for this demanding material, however little it matters. These recordings are very precious: they capture the essence of PRAYING MANTIS, their ever lasting relationship with the eastern audience and their impressive live capabilities. They remain as a testament of a band that has endured a lot of challenges, but found their way in a time when their sound was buried deep in their homeland. CHERRY RED RECORDS did their best to maintain the live sound quality of the recordings the passionate fans and the stellar performance of the band. The sound is so alive that should you close your eyes, you can easily imagine being yourself there. Of course the box set includes detailed bootleg with information on the band history, the recordings and a couple of photos.
If you are a PRAYING MANTIS die-hard then you shouldn’t miss this one. If you are not familiar with them, its a good start to get to know their sound: from the early rough melodic metal of their first album to the more polished yet still powerful melodic metal of their latter work PRAYING MANTIS never lacked inspiration and still manages to impress us both on studio and on stage.
The box set will be released on the 24th of April 2026.
