I think 2024 sees Praying Mantis celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. Or if not fifty years it is around that. Going all the way back to the early New Wave of British Heavy Metal days and their excellent Time Tells No Lies album.
Five decades later and the band remains active with brothers Tino and Chris Troy there as always. Here in April 2024 we have a new album entitled Defiance. It comes a couple of years after their previous album – Katharis – which I did not like at all. You can read my review of Katharis here.
Hoping that Defiance would be a better effort I thought I’d take a chance on it to see, or rather hear, if that is the case.
We don’t judge albums or books by their covers – though with a striking bit of artwork looking not dissimilar from the nasty beastie in the Alien movies it does give an impression of something heavy this way comes.
Er, well, no. To my ears Defiance is far, far removed from anything remotely related to Praying Mantis’ NWOBHM roots and like Katharsis limps along tamely as generally generic no weight samey lightweight AOR mixed in with some plodding ballads.
Feelin’ Lucky isn’t too bad having a bit of punch to it. The closer – Let’s See – is an enjoyable rocker though for me the rest of the album is a huge miss. The cover of I Surrender is pointless.
When you have such a hugely powerful vocalist in the line-up in Jaycee Cuijpers surely you make the most of them. He puts it all in as always and is the clear stand out here. If only the music came somewhere close to what Jaycee does with his voice. Monster, monster set of pipes he has.
Have a listen to Let’s See – one of the two songs on Defiance which I think is OK.
Whilst Defiance is too lightweight and formulaic for me, if you like your AOR stuff then Defiance might be your bag.
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Due shortly we have the live album from the good old Tygers of Pan Tang and a new album from Demon. Two more “legacy” NWOBHM bands still doing their stuff.
Recent Tygers output has been superb (check out Bloodlines and Ritual) and Demon’s previous album from eight years or so ago – Cemetery Junction – was a good ‘un. Have both new albums on order. Reviews to follow.
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