THE JOURNEY GOES ON (E)

The history from Praying Mantis goes back to 1977 when the Spanish-Greek brothers Tino Troy (guitar, vocals, keyboards) and Chris Troy (bass, guitar, vocals, keyboards) founded the band. From 1990 Dennis Stratton (ex-Iron Maiden, guitar, vocals) is considered to be a full member of the band as well. As a successor to the commercially succesful album Nowhere To Hide (2000) the decision was made to use different vocalists. John Sloman (ex-Lone Star) and Dougie White (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, ex-Rainbow) together with the band's own vocalists and with the aid of drummer Martin Johnson indeed show that Praying Mantis have come up with the varied album The Journey Goes On which is full of craftsmanship. The frequently used keyboards, the orchestrations, intros and the organ give the basically A.O.R. and melodic metal music by Praying Mantis an extra dimension which will most certainly be to the liking of those who cherish the music of Uriah Heep and Iron Maiden during the period Somewhere in Time (1986). Although the musicians are excellent, the guitar solos all nicely fit into the songs and are never overdone or leading to unnecessary showing off. The easy-listening melodies are characterized by relatively simply chords, but there are many tasteful transitions and nice close harmonies that make this album surely worth while. Striking is the tenth track, that is not listed on the cover of the promo and neither in the accompanying information! This song in the best tradition of Journey is the re-recorded version of Naked with a beautiful ballad-like interlude and it's also the longest track - just over eight minutes - on this solid AOR-album. The only criticism could be that the compositions aren't extraordinary, but I do like them anyway.