A mantis is an insect with an exceptional range of vision.

"Mantis" is the Greek word for prophet.

And Mantis is the epic new album by Midwestern monsters of improvised rock, Umphrey's McGee. Consisting of Brendan Bayliss (guitar, vocals), Jake Cinninger (guitar, synthesizers, vocals), Joel Cummins (keyboards, vocals), Andy Farag (percussion), Kris Myers (drums, vocals), and Ryan Stasik (bass), Umphrey's McGee enters its second decade together with their most progressive, melodic and artistically cohesive album to date.

A long-time-coming labor of love as well as an inspiring affirmation of musical brotherhood, Mantis is Umphrey's first fully fleshed-out studio statement since 2006's Safety in Numbers, which was followed by 2007's odds-and-sods collection The Bottom Half and the double live album Live at Murat. So when Brendan Bayliss sings, "We believe there's something here worth dying for," to kick off Mantis's majestic twelve-minute title track, you should take him at his word.

Mantis is the first Umphrey's album to consist entirely of material never previously performed on the road, where the band rules the improv-rock circuit and plays more than 100 shows each year. Although the band already plays numerous songs they have yet to record, sometimes you just have to hold back in order to deliver a bigger bang. Mystique, thy name is Mantis.

Umphrey's recorded their eighth album in an unusually relaxed fashion over the course of some twenty months in Manny Sanchez's I.V. Lab Studios in Chicago (Steve Albini's Electrical Audio was also used). "It really helps to have a great friend who loves the band and who runs one of the best studios in town," says Cinninger. "Manny has been a godsend." The band's longtime sound caresser, Kevin Browning, meticulously edited and mixed the material on Mantis; the result is Umphrey's finest produced album to date.