PRAYING MANTIS — Metalmorphosis (review)

PRAYING MANTIS — Metalmorphosis album cover EP · 2011 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Stephen
"Metalmorphosis" is a celebration EP to mark Praying Mantis' 30 years of career, and if you've been around in early 80s, you probably know songs like "Children of The Earth" or "Lovers To The Grave" from their debut, "Time Tells No Lies". The sole reason of this release is probably to treat long time fans with re-recorded classics for nostalgic purpose and to offer two obscure tracks from their pre-debut session, all with new singer, Mike Freeland.

"Children of The Earth" is perhaps the best of the bunch. The intro riffs are killer, the dual guitar attack with tight harmony vocals on chorus are tremendous, and the solo guitar is a total blast. Mantis plays with different tempo on this song to give a dynamic twist. "Praying Mantis" is reminiscent of Maiden early style, a good track, along with the other number, "Panic In The Streets". "Lovers To The Grave" which sounded very 70s, the vintage choir singing style and the thrilling solos are the main attraction, but the whole track is quite decent to me. "Captured City" is a wonderful uptempo tune with magnificent solos, this is as great as "Children", and since you can't find this in their debut, this makes "Metalmorphosis" worth to buy.

However, I found the production level is quite low, raw and almost like demo quality to me. The instruments are audible but Mark Freeland's vocal is a bit swallowed behind. The top notch guitar works are the selling point of this record, but if only the production is better and they throw in couple of new songs, this can be a champion, otherwise, this might be the best buy only for Mantis fans.
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