Founded by brothers Tino and Chris Troy, PRAYING MANTIS developed a reputation for delivering thinking man’s metal very much defining the genre in Great Britain during the ’80s. One of the band’s favorite albums, “Time Tells No Lies“, has been requested in its Remastered & Reloaded form by Rock Candy Records including 5 bonus tracks.
Indeed, Praying Mantis had the musical chops to rival and, at times, outshine the competition by utilizing twin lead guitar, ambitious arrangements and multilayered harmonies; their songs were melodic yet intricately arranged and packed a powerful punch.
“Time Tells No Lies”, produced by Time Friese Green (Touch), engineered by Mike Shipley (Def Leppard) and housed in a stunning Rodney Matthews designed sleeve, appeared at the beginning of the ’80s and attracted highbrow praise positioning them as a band to definitely watch out for.
Sure, in the end they didn’t quite reach the peak of popularity attained by Maiden or Leppard, but their presence on the scene was not without significance and “Time Tells No Lies” remains a gleaming testament to their talent.
‘Cheated’ is a hard rocker that opens the album with a bang, while ‘All Day and All of the Night,’ a remake of the Kinks classic, keeps the energy going.
Then you have the fun ‘Rich City Kids’ (with some Saxon on it), the highly melodic ‘Beads Of Ebony’ remind you Thin Lizzy, and ‘Children Of The Earth’ has a classic British-made chorus.
The more progressive songs ‘Running for Tomorrow’ and the slow, almost ballad-esque ‘Lovers to the Grave’ show what made this band special.
This Rock Candy Records remaster of “Time Tells No Lies” (almost out of print) is the first official European release of this album on CD, with their usual 24-bit remastering from original source tapes, five bonus tracks (including the classic single titled as the band, ‘Praying Mantis’), 3,500 word essay about the making of the album, band involvement and additional photos spread out over a 16 page full colour booklet.
It’s great to see this much ignored tome (way ahead of their time) by Praying Mantis get to bask in the limelight once again, in my opinion, one of the precursor bands of the Melodic Hard Rock sound in UK during the entire ’80s.
Highly Recommended
01 - Cheated
02 - All Day And All Of The Night
03 - Running For Tomorrow
04 - Rich City Kids
05 - Lovers To The Grave
06 - Panic In The Streets
07 - Beads Of Ebony
08 - Flirting With Suicide
09 - Children Of The Earth
BONUS TRACKS:
10 - Praying Mantis
11 - High Roller
12 - Thirty Pieces Of Silver
13 - Flirting With Suicide [Live]
14 - Panic In The Streets [Live]
Tino Troy - guitar, vocals
Steve Carroll - guitar, vocals
Chris Troy - bass, vocals
PRAYING MANTIS – Time Tells No Lies [Rock Candy remastered +5 bonus] 2012+FLAC
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