PRAYING MANTIS - ALIVE IN TOKYO CITY PRAYING MANTIS & PAUL DIANNO, DENNIS STRATTON - ZOOM CLUB

Praying Mantis were one of the better NWOBHM bands doing the rounds in the late seventies/early eighties although they never had the commercial success enjoyed by the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard. In the days of Rob Loonhouse 'Captured City' could be heard alongside Iron Maiden's 'Sound House Tapes', Saxons 'Stallions Of The Highway' and Def Leppard's 'Getcha Rocks Off.' The scene was far from glamorous, but bands at least toured, even if they did play in arenas like Cheltenham Town Hall and Deptford bike sheds.

Praying Mantis missed the boat in the UK but instead caught one to Japan where they are now enormous. The core of the band remains the same with Chris and Tino Troy as the driving force but ex-Iron Maiden chaps Dennis Stratton (guitar) and Clive Burr (drums) have now been roped in to add their weight, although Bruce Bisland has now replaced Burr on drums. Ex-MSG veteran Gary Barden handles lead vocals, although Tony O'Hora has now replaced him.

Praying Mantis now combine the twin guitar attack of Iron Maiden with the big harmonies of the short-lived and highly underrated Lionheart. The songs are competent but are very much formularised; each having a verse, chorus, verse, chorus approach that becomes tedious.

Praying Mantis are hugely melodic such as on 'A Cry For The New World' or the pomp orientated 'Rise Up Again' and their musical mettle is no better demonstrated than on the instrumental 'The Horn'. 'Children Of The Earth's song from the bands early days is fine tuned and brought up to date with its Maidenesque harmony guitar parts whilst the opener 'Victory' proves the need for bands to suck up to the Japanese market. Barden is in fine form on vocals as is drummer Clive Burr but even they somehow fail to make this into anything more than an average melodic rock album. The new material on the Frontiers label should be more encouraging.

Zoom Club have seen fit to capitalise on the success of Praying Mantis by releasing an album that is basically Praying Mantis, with ex-Iron Maiden/ Battlezone propping up the microphone stand (or should that be the other way round). 'Live At Last' features material that has been of relevance to the careers of Stratton, Dianno, and Praying Mantis. Six Praying Mantis songs are given an airing-'Children Of The Earth' being the pick of the bunch-along with six from Dianno's Maiden days. Two tracks represent Stratton's Involvement in Lionheart, 'Dangerous Game', and the title track from the Epic release 'Hot Tonight'.

The line up of songs is, on paper at least, a good one but Dianno who on this evidence has turned Into the club singer ruins the whole affair. 'Running Free' and 'Wrathchild' are more suited to Dianno's screams and growls, but the more melodic songs prove an impossible task for someone who has a clear problem remembering the lyrics.

'Live At Last' is a poor release that does Dianno no favours at all. Record companies would do themselves and the record buying public a favour if they invested their money more wisely. How about releasing the Stampede or Lionheart demos with Rueben Archer on vocals, surely this would be much more worthwhile. Mike Newdeck

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