A friend of mine from Florida who is a bit of a child prodigy, told me about a band called Nonpoint a couple of years back. Why I didn’t listen closer at the time, I really don’t know. This particular person who works closely with a number of local clubs and promotional street teams down in Florida, and is now all of 17 years-old also introduced me to a little band called (hed)pe. Both bands have broken onto the scene with some serious impact in the recent months. I think I will have to give my young friend a call, and thank him for being so insightful and encourage him to keep doing what he’s doing.
In the case of Nonpoint, a veritable hurricane of groove-based metal with eerily similar Lynn Strait-ish vocal talent and Snot-inspired guitar lines at certain moments, I plan to pay very close attention. This band rocks hard. Damn hard.
The band members can play fluently, and the singer can actually sing as well as he can scream. These are both big bonuses these days when it seems that heavy bands and the quality of the music within the genre are beginning to blend superfluously. Nonpoint has done a very good job of establishing themselves without sacrificing the foundation they came up in. The rock/rap elements are there, but they aren’t of the same mold as the tired Limp Bizkit stylings that keep coming at us unwelcomed. These are more scat-like, and jazzy, and pleasant while maintaining a molten heaviness that doesn’t come off sounding trite or artificial.
Lesa Pence
– lesa@unearthed.com
