Nearly four years after their previous release, ‘Liberation Transmission’, welsh boys Lostprophets are back with their fourth studio album. After scrapping an album’s worth of “trainwreck” material in 2007 (as described by Ian Watkins himself), the now self produced ‘The Betrayed’ is finally set to be released on 18th January 2010.On the 7th of January a group of fans and media types queued in the bitter cold to listen to the new album, followed by a Q and A session with Ian Watkins himself.
Back to the album, which is a bit of a mix itself. On the album you find your very typical Lost Prophets melodies mixed with heavier riffs and the trademark pop choruses. Don’t be put off by the more pop and sing-along choruses of first two singles from the album, ‘It’s Not The End Of The World But I Can See It From Here’ and ‘Where We Belong’ as ‘The Betrayed’ is as much a rock record as much as it is a pop record.
“If It Wasn’t For Hate We’d Be Dead By Now’ is the perfect start to the album. It’s a slow dark track with epic drums that really set the tone for the album. Ian Watkins said that the name of this first track does sum up the band, that they would be dead had it not been for hate – odd, but quite possibly true. Nothing can then prepare you for the second track ‘Dsrtyr / Dstryr’. It is by far the heaviest track on the album, the guitars are raw, the vocals are screamed in a speakerphone way and the verse is also reminiscent of Rage Against The Machine. It’s one for the old school Lostprophets fans and kicks off the album in a very aggressive style. ‘Next Stop Atro City’ later in the album continues the fast aggressive tone with similar vocals and new drummer Luke Johnson (ex Beat Union) showcases his talent with incredibly fast drumming on this track.
Similar to the band’s second album ‘Start Something’, there are a variety of interludes between songs, this was something that was not seen on ‘Liberation Transmission’. The most notable interlude is between ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Felon’ and ‘A Better Nothing’, made up of eerie synths it sounds similar to the Doctor Who theme or something off the latest Muse album. ‘A Better Nothing’ doesn’t really have anything special about it and just sounds like a standard Lostprophets song.
The track ‘Streets of Nowhere’ is not a million miles away from anything on ‘Liberation Transmission’ and with its incredibly poppy chorus it sounds somewhat similar to ‘Can’t Catch Tomorrow’ from that album. ‘The Betrayed’ also has that cliché end of rock album epic song, it’s called ‘The Light That Burns Twice `As Bright…’ and it is a perfect ending to the album, with piano constant throughout but I can’t help thinking that it sounds a little bit like Coldplay’s ‘Clocks’.
‘The Betrayed’ is a big improvement on Lostprophets last studio release and is definitely the most diverse record that they’ve ever produced. The trademark blend of rock/pop that these welsh boys seemed to have perfected will have you singing along for a long time to come yet!
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