PRAYING MANTIS
Biography and full discography of PRAYING MANTIS, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
PRAYING MANTIS
Biography
Overview
Praying Mantis are a British hard rock band started in London in 1974 by the brothers Tino Troy, on guitar and vocals, and Chris Troy, on bass and vocals. Along with Iron Maiden, Samson and Angel Witch, they are counted among the bands that came up out of London at the end of the 1970s and became the new wave of British heavy metal.
Their 1981 debut, Time Tells No Lies, has been read ever since as one of the most melodic records that movement produced. Two lead guitars playing harmony lines, and a thick bed of backing vocals sung by the whole band: those two things have survived every change of line-up in forty-five years.
And no account of this band works without Japan. After their career at home stopped, it was a Japanese concert that put them back in front of an audience in 1990, and for more than a decade afterwards their new albums came out in Japan first, on Pony Canyon. This site carries eighteen records: the sixteen the band's own site lists as albums, plus the two live albums released in Japan in 2026.
1974 to 1979 — when they were called Junction
The band began under the name Junction. In a recollection Chris Troy wrote for the official site, the first rehearsal room was the front room of a member's house in Beckenham, and they were thrown out of it soon enough. What they found next was Nathaniel Heckford School on Cable Street in London E1, around the corner from the London College of Furniture where Tino Troy was studying furniture design, and where a member's father was the schoolkeeper. They took over an old coal store with thick brick walls, hung black curtains around it, and had somewhere they could play as loud as they liked without bothering anyone. They built their own lighting rig out of catering-sized tins, built their own PA, and bought an old Bedford ambulance that kept breaking down.
The name changed by accident. They were overdubbing backing vocals behind their singer Stan, bouncing between two cassette recorders, and gesturing with their hands as they sang. Stan burst out laughing and said they looked like a load of praying mantises. Junction ended there. Chris Troy tells the story himself in the Troy Story section of the band's site.
Their first proper demo was cut at First Light, an eight-track studio in Beckenham: "Captured City", "Lovers to the Grave", "Johnny Cool" and "The Ripper". Handing that tape to Neal Kay, who ran the Heavy Metal Soundhouse in Kingsbury in north London, changed everything. Kay played it to the people who came to the club — the same room where Iron Maiden's and Samson's tapes were being played.
1980 to 1981 — at the centre of the new wave
In February 1980 EMI released Metal for Muthas, a compilation of bands from around the Soundhouse. Iron Maiden and Praying Mantis were both on it and toured the UK together behind it. It was around this point that Sounds gave the whole movement its name.
Chris Troy has left two stories from those months on the band's own site. In one, the fifty-seat coach carrying the band and Iron Maiden's crew — some twenty-five people — broke down in the middle of the Scottish moors in midwinter, and they sat for hours in a cooling cabin while the driver walked off to find a phone box. In the other, playing an eight-foot-high stage as Iron Maiden's support, he stepped backwards off the edge on the last note of the set's last song, "Captured City". The rest of the band had left by the other side and nobody noticed; Tino Troy counted the encore in, stopped the band and told the room, "Apologies, we seem to have lost our bassist."
A single called "Praying Mantis" came out on GEM in June 1980, followed by a cover of the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night". The debut album, Time Tells No Lies, arrived on Arista on 3 April 1981, produced by Tim Friese-Greene at Battery Studios in London. The band on it were the Troy brothers with Steve Carroll on guitar and vocals and Dave Potts on drums, and Rodney Matthews painted the sleeve.
"Cheated" entered the UK singles chart dated 31 January 1981 and peaked at 69 across two weeks; the album entered on 11 April and peaked at 60, also for two weeks. Not large numbers. But the record itself has been named in every account of the new wave of British heavy metal written since.
1982 to 1989 — the gap
Contract and management trouble followed the debut. The band's own site puts it briefly: managerial problems and a couple of name changes, and then they stopped. By the middle of the 1980s the name Praying Mantis had gone. Steve Carroll, the guitarist, moved on to Little Bo Bitch.
1990 to 1996 — starting again in Japan
In April 1990 a concert was held at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo to mark ten years of the new wave of British heavy metal. The Troy brothers played it with Paul Di'Anno, Iron Maiden's first singer, and Dennis Stratton, who had also been in Iron Maiden. The record of that night is Live at Last, and the title says where they were.
The concert brought the band back. In March 1991 Pony Canyon released Predator in Disguise, their first studio album in ten years, with Gary Barden of MSG singing and Dennis Stratton on guitar. From there, for more than a decade, their new records came out in Japan before anywhere else. Mark Thompson-Smith sang on A Cry for the New World in 1993, with Bruce Bisland on drums; Clive Burr, also formerly of Iron Maiden, passed through the band in these years too.
To the Power of Ten followed in August 1995, and in March 1996 the double live album Captured Alive in Tokyo City, recorded in Tokyo the previous November. A show at The Bottom Line in Nagoya on 24 November 1993 had been recorded as well, and came out in Japan thirty-three years later as The Bottom Line Nagoya Japan 1993.
1998 to 2013 — the long middle
Tony O'Hora took over the vocals from Forever in Time in June 1998, and stayed through Nowhere to Hide (2000) and The Journey Goes On (2003). Nowhere to Hide came out in an unusual shape even for this band: the Japanese CD appeared first, on 21 June, with nine songs, and the international edition followed on 21 November with "Naked" added for ten. The missing song was re-recorded in 2003 and closes The Journey Goes On.
In 2007 Dennis Stratton, who had played guitar here since the 1990 reunion, left, and Andy Burgess came in. Burgess has been the second lead guitar ever since and became one of the band's main writers at the same time. Sanctuary, released by Frontiers in June 2009, is the first record that line-up made.
In December 2011 King Records released Metalmorphosis, a Japan-only album on which the band re-recorded their early material for their thirtieth anniversary. It is also where "Captured City" — the set closer since the 1979 demo — and the 1980 single "Praying Mantis" finally became available as proper studio recordings.
2015 onwards — the present band
In 2013 two Dutch players joined: John 'Jaycee' Cuijpers on vocals and Hans in 't Zandt on drums, replacing Mike Freeland and Gary MacKenzie. Legacy, in August 2015, is the first album they made, and Gravity (2018), Katharsis (2022) and Defiance (2024) have followed. In September 2015 the band announced on their own site the death of Steve Carroll, who had played guitar on the debut, writing that his tasteful licks, melodic tones and fine voice had graced Time Tells No Lies.
Their set at Frontiers Rock Festival V in Milan on 28 April 2018 became the live album Keep It Alive! the following year. They kept returning to Japan as well — Harajuku Astro Hall on 3 November 2015, Umeda Club Quattro on 30 June 2017 and Toyosu PIT on 1 July, the latter shared with Lionheart.
Then, in June 2024, they came back for their fiftieth year: Shibuya Club Quattro on the 5th and Umeda Club Quattro on the 6th, billed as the Praying Mantis 50th Anniversary Farewell Japan Tour 2024. By the band's own announcement, those two nights were arranged as their last performances in Japan. A run of German and Italian dates is set for November and December 2026, under a title the venues carry as the "45th Anniversary - Time Tells No Lies Tour 2026" — forty-five years, that is, from the first album.
Members (as of 2026)
| Name | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tino Troy | Lead guitar, vocals | Founder; in the band since 1974 |
| Chris Troy | Bass, vocals | Founder; in the band since 1974 |
| Andy Burgess | Lead guitar, vocals | Joined 2007, replacing Dennis Stratton |
| John 'Jaycee' Cuijpers | Vocals | Joined 2013; Dutch |
| Hans in 't Zandt | Drums, percussion, vocals | Joined 2013; Dutch |
Discography (the records carried on this site)
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | The Bottom Line Nagoya Japan 1998 | Live album |
| 2026 | The Bottom Line Nagoya Japan 1993 | Live album |
| 2024 | Defiance | Studio album |
| 2022 | Katharsis | Studio album |
| 2019 | Keep It Alive! | Live album |
| 2018 | Gravity | Studio album |
| 2015 | Legacy | Studio album |
| 2011 | Metalmorphosis | Studio album (re-recordings, Japan only) |
| 2009 | Sanctuary | Studio album |
| 2003 | The Journey Goes On | Studio album |
| 2000 | Nowhere to Hide | Studio album |
| 1998 | Forever in Time | Studio album |
| 1996 | Captured Alive in Tokyo City | Live album |
| 1995 | To the Power of Ten | Studio album |
| 1993 | A Cry for the New World | Studio album |
| 1991 | Predator in Disguise | Studio album |
| 1990 | Live at Last | Live album |
| 1981 | Time Tells No Lies | Studio album |
The band's own site lists sixteen of these as albums; the two Bottom Line records came out in Japan in 2026, after that list was written. The two compilations MusicBrainz holds under the same artist — Demorabilia (1999) and The Best of Praying Mantis (2004) — sit on the band's compilations tab rather than its albums tab and are not carried here, and neither is the four-song Japanese EP Only the Children Cry (1993).
A note on sources
This article was written against the band's official site prayingmantis.rocks (its band profile, its album list and Chris Troy's own recollections in the Troy Story section) and the archive site it points to, praying-mantis.com (the band summary, the full discography and the official credits for Sanctuary and Metalmorphosis, and the announcement of Steve Carroll's death); the release data MusicBrainz holds for artist 4150ecb6-ec16-474e-8273-d4bdf577e931; TOWER RECORDS ONLINE's product pages for the Japanese editions (PCCY-01257, PCCY-01462, PCCY-01636, KICP-1372, KICP-1598, KICP-1738, KICP-1902, KIZC-586, MICP-11678, MICP-11858, MICP-30230, MICP-30235 and CANDY121OBI); the Apple Music Japan catalogue; the Official Charts Company's chart data; Tokyo Onkyo's page for the 2024 Japanese tour; Paunchy Cats' own Eventim Light page for the 2026 date; and Songkick's concert data. Release dates, labels and catalogue numbers are taken where the MusicBrainz original-pressing rows and TOWER RECORDS ONLINE agree. Every video was checked against the channel that uploaded it, and no fan re-upload is included.
Trivia
What put this band back in front of an audience, after they had stopped in the middle of the 1980s, was a concert in Japan. In April 1990 a show marking ten years of the new wave of British heavy metal was staged at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo, and the Troy brothers played it with Paul Di'Anno, Iron Maiden's first singer, and Dennis Stratton, who had also been in Iron Maiden. The record of that night is Live at Last, and six of its fourteen songs — "Wrathchild", "Murders in the Rue Morgue", "Remember Tomorrow", "Phantom of the Opera", "Iron Maiden" and "Running Free" — are Iron Maiden's. The band's own site names that Japanese festival as the place they reformed.
From Predator in Disguise in 1991 to The Journey Goes On in 2003, this band's new albums came out in Japan first. Pony Canyon, through its Canyon International imprint, issued them as PCCY-00207, PCCY-00422, PCCY-00794, PCCY-01257, PCCY-01462 and PCCY-01636. The band's own profile page says of those years that they released many successful albums with Pony Canyon in Japan and that Japan became one of their major territories. A good deal of the reason a band who went nearly a decade without a record at home has been able to keep making them for thirty years since is contained in that one sentence.
The June 2024 Japanese shows were announced by the band themselves as their last performances in the country. Shibuya Club Quattro on the 5th and Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka on the 6th, billed as the Praying Mantis 50th Anniversary Farewell Japan Tour 2024. The listing embedded on the band's own site says the shows celebrate their fiftieth anniversary, that they will play across their career including new songs from Defiance, their thirteenth studio album, and that "these shows in Tokyo and Osaka will be their last performances in Japan before they retire from touring". Tokyo Onkyo promoted them; admission was standing only at ¥9,500 including tax, with a ¥600 drink charge on top.
The band started out called Junction, and the change of name happened entirely by accident. Chris Troy tells the story in the Troy Story section of the band's own site: they were overdubbing four-part backing vocals behind their singer Stan, bouncing sound between two cassette recorders, with a broom handle for a mic stand and a claw hammer taped to the end of it for ballast. Watching them gesture with their hands as they sang, Stan burst out laughing and said they looked like a load of praying mantises. Junction ended there.
What put the band in front of people was a single demo tape: "Captured City", "Lovers to the Grave", "Johnny Cool" and "The Ripper", cut at First Light, an eight-track studio in Beckenham. They handed it to Neal Kay, who ran the Heavy Metal Soundhouse in Kingsbury in north London, and Kay started playing it to the room — the same room where Iron Maiden's and Samson's tapes were being played. The band's own site calls the Soundhouse north London's premier hard rock disco and says the movement took shape out of it.
On the 1980 tour supporting Iron Maiden, Chris Troy had been crossing seven or eight times a night between his bass amp and a small temporary platform that jutted out from the front of a stage some eight feet high. On the last note of the last song, "Captured City", he pulled the strap off to raise the bass above his head, took a step backwards, and found nothing under his foot. He landed on the wooden floor beside the scaffolding poles that held the platform up. The rest of the band had left by the other side and nobody noticed; Tino Troy counted the encore in, stopped the band and told the room, "Apologies, we seem to have lost our bassist." Nothing was broken. Troy ends the story with the line of the night — asked whether Mantis went down well, the answer was that the bassist went down really well.
The debut's actual UK chart performance was modest. The Official Charts Company's database has Time Tells No Lies entering on the chart dated 11 April 1981, peaking at 60 and staying two weeks, and the single "Cheated" entering on 31 January 1981, peaking at 69, also for two weeks. The band's own profile page states that "Cheated" went top 40 in the UK charts in 1980; the Official Charts Company's record differs on both the year and the position. Either way the numbers are not the point — this is a record that has been named in every account of the new wave of British heavy metal written in the forty-five years since.
"Captured City" has closed this band's sets since the First Light demo of 1979. For thirty-two years, though, there was no proper studio recording of it to buy: it is not on the 1981 debut and not on any of the albums that followed the 1990s restart. The first official studio version appeared in 2011, on Metalmorphosis, made for the band's thirtieth anniversary. The same is true of "Praying Mantis", the 1980 single named after the band itself. That Japan-only album is not simply a set of re-recordings; two of its songs exist nowhere else.
Current Members
Current line-up as published by the official site, verified on 2026-09-17.
Albums
A double live album from The Bottom Line in Nagoya on 11 November 1998, released in Japan by Marquee Inc. on 8 July 2026 as a two-disc SHM-CD set. Fifteen songs, about an hour and thirty-six minutes.
A double live album from The Bottom Line in Nagoya on 24 November 1993, recorded on the A Cry for the New World tour with former Iron Maiden guitarist Dennis Stratton in the band. Sixteen songs, about an hour and thirty-nine minutes.
The thirteenth Praying Mantis studio album, released on 19 April 2024 by Frontiers and, the same day in Japan, by Marquee Incorporated. It marks the band's fiftieth year; the Japanese edition adds an alternate version of the title track for twelve songs.
The twelfth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Frontiers on 28 January 2022. Marquee Incorporated issued the Japanese edition the same day, adding an acoustic version of "Find Our Way Back Home" for twelve tracks.
A live album and DVD from Frontiers Rock Festival V in Milan on 28 April 2018, released by Frontiers on 6 December 2019. King Records issued the Japanese edition on 29 January 2020 with one bonus track on the CD.
The eleventh Praying Mantis studio album. King Records released the Japanese edition on 9 May 2018, two days before Frontiers issued it elsewhere on the 11th; the Japanese CD adds an alternate mix of "The Last Summer" for twelve tracks.
The tenth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Frontiers on 21 August 2015 — the first with Jaycee Cuijpers singing and Hans in 't Zandt on drums. King Records issued the Japanese edition on 26 August with one extra track.
A Japan-only album of newly re-recorded early Praying Mantis songs, made for the band's thirtieth anniversary and released by King Records on 21 December 2011 as KICP-1598. Eleven tracks.
The ninth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Frontiers on 5 June 2009 after a six-year gap — the first with Andy Burgess in Dennis Stratton's place. King Records issued the Japanese edition on 23 July with one extra track.
The eighth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Pony Canyon on 19 March 2003 as PCCY-01636 — issued in Japan first, as this band's records had been through the 1990s. Ten songs.
The seventh Praying Mantis studio album. Pony Canyon released the Japanese edition first, on 21 June 2000, with nine songs; the international edition followed on 21 November with "Naked" added, for ten.
The sixth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Pony Canyon on 17 June 1998 as PCCY-01257 — the first with Tony O'Hora singing. Ten songs.
A double live album from the band's Tokyo shows of November 1995, released by Pony Canyon on 21 March 1996 as PCCY-00902. Twenty songs across two CDs.
The fifth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Pony Canyon on 19 August 1995 as PCCY-00794. Eleven songs.
The fourth Praying Mantis studio album, released by Pony Canyon on 21 May 1993 as PCCY-00422, with Mark Thompson-Smith singing and former Iron Maiden guitarist Dennis Stratton in the band. Eleven songs.
The band's second album, ten years after the first, and in practice their restart. Pony Canyon released it on 21 March 1991 as PCCY-00207, with Gary Barden of MSG singing and Dennis Stratton, formerly of Iron Maiden, on guitar. Eleven songs.
A live album from the concert marking ten years of the new wave of British heavy metal, played at Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo in April 1990 with Paul Di'Anno and Dennis Stratton of Iron Maiden. Half the set is this band's own songs and half is Iron Maiden's. Fourteen tracks.
The debut Praying Mantis album, released by Arista on 3 April 1981. It has been read ever since as one of the defining records of the new wave of British heavy metal, and it reached number 60 on the UK albums chart. Nine songs.