Sometimes you just know when a band are destined for great things and it the same time they will never be as big as their American contemporaries. Yes, lostprophets are Welsh. Yes, they have killer tunes that kick your ass leaving you speechless and slack jawed at the quality and originality of their material. Lostprophets are one such band. They used to compare them with Def Leppard and if you give them a chance you will be surprised how much they relate to what Leppard did in the middle of the 80’s. We’re talking big, fat, overdubbed and even a little bit cheesy pop rock here but there’s nothing wrong with this. While their bestseller, ‘Start Something’, was undeniably their most focused album and its follow up, ‘Liberation Transmission’ was too much pop for some of us, this one here is something in the middle. ‘The Betrayed’ should have been released back in 2008 but the band abandoned almost all songs from that period calling the material ‘sleek and overproduced’. Giving journalists reasons to speculate about ‘lost’ albums etc. lostprophets quickly moved to Bob Rock and even changed their record label in order to release the new album in time. Showcasing a so far untried method of injecting dark and twisted lyrics and malevolent guitar work into the bubble gum world of pop punk and rock, ‘The Betrayed’ is an album you have to listen to again and again to discover little bits here and there. The opener ‘If It Wasn’t For Hate, We’d Be Dead By Now’ is quite typical anthem-like lostprophets’ song which resembles the whole concept of the previous album, but if you expect the same, from now on, you will be surprised. ‘Dstryr And Dstryr’ is very groovy, almost RATM influenced and angry. There also very easily recognisible FNM influences (‘For He’s A Jplly Good Felon’, ‘A Better Nothing’) and motowny type of songs (‘The Light That Shines Twice As Bright’). Overall it’s more than a decent album, with lots of mood changes and different approaches. It’s also very dark and in the same time poppy. Yeah, I can see your cynical smiles from here but it’s easy to pretend being dark by growling when you have double drum attack and cranking guitars behind you back. Try to be dark and pop. See? Not so easy, eh? The trouble is, as I already said, lostprophets are Welsh and their chances of being recognized as international kids’ choice are slim. And they get even slimmer when the band releases albums once in 5 years. That’s food for thought.