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› Lostprophets: A Bold Move
Not many people seem happy that Lostprophets are headlining the Download Festival. And why should they be? A band that neglected the metal leanings of their first release, Thefakesoundofprogress, in the name of the pop/punk sound that has made them mainstream global superstars, hardly ticks the boxes for closing out UK’s biggest rock festival, an honour more associated with Iron Maiden, Metallica and Guns n’ Roses. Yet 2008 will be the year that Lostprophets will return to their metal sound, defying their global acclaim with a commercially unviable formula that should silence those critics who say their musical direction is dictated by the bank manager.
June 26th, 2006. After a lengthy delay, Lostprophets release Liberation Transmission, their third album. The band-members have linked the new album to Thefakesoundofprogress (2001), implying a heavier sound than 2004’s Start Something. Instead, fans are greeted with a continuation of Start Something’s direction. Littered with pop/punk anthems, this album showed their lateral talent, but was a disappointment to their long-term fans. Fair enough – you like what you like. However, this is a band that has suffered the derision of thousands, perhaps millions, who will assume that to go from underground to mainstream means only one thing – selling out.
And so on to new things. An album coming out (so current estimates go) around the same time as their Download performance, and the band already showcasing songs in advance at gigs. Watkins describes the new record as “a lot heavier, angrier, arrogant and sarcastic”, explaining that to produce two upbeat albums on the trot would completely misrepresent him as a person. These are not the words of a man hell-bent on selling as many records as possible. Not since the 1990s heyday of nu-metal and grunge, has there been a place in the mainstream for angry and sarcastic albums.
Lostprophets aren’t the first band to diverge from their inclined path and sprint headfirst towards the heaving bank account beckoning. Incubus and Red Hot Chili Peppers have played around with metal and funk styles, only to settle upon the more popular chilled mainstream style. But Watkins and his entourage are poised on the brink, ready to take the plunge that Incubus and Red Hot Chili Peppers never dared to take. And for that, they deserve the support of the alternative community.
It’s one thing to spend your musical career avoiding the mainstream, but finding it and then risking a return to potential obscurity deserves shows character. The return of one of the biggest bands in the world to hard rock deserves one of the biggest hard rock spotlights in the world, and that’s what they’ll get.
Nick Kassam
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