Nonpoint-“Self-Titled” Album Review

REVIEW BY INTERN JOHN SPATARO Feb. 4th, 2013 

Heavy metal rockers NONPOINT have released their 9^th studio album for your listening pleasure but does the “Self-titled” LP hold its own in the band’s deep catalog?

Kinda.

Elias Soriano, the band’s lead vocalist, said before the album’s release that,"(The band) wanted this record to be a punch in the face. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to artistically vent about.”

Under those criteria, this album succeeds with flying colors. NONPOINT, is an album that has the same heavy riffs and deep drum hits that we have grown to expect from NONPOINT but just doesn’t hit as hard or as solid as their previous albums.

The album opens up with “Lights, Camera, Action” which is a heavy and angry commentary on the status quo and leaves you with the driving chorus of “Lights, camera, action/I’m looking for a change or a chain reaction” stuck in your head for hours after listening.

Soriano shows his voice’s melodic abilities when he takes a step back from his usual scream-sing style and sings a climbing melody for “The Way I See Things”. Some more devoted fans may fear a softer sounding track but the guitar and drums assure you that this is still the same band from the song before.

The duo of “I Said It” and “Left For You” are the two songs that were released prior to the album’s drop either as a free download on NONPOINT’s website or a single, respectively. Both songs rely heavily on some great riffs mixed with some questionable lyrics. “I Said It” features the line “Your mother should have left you in the balls of your pops.” And I can’t help but feel the band wishes they would have left that line on the cutting room floor because it definitely comes off more comical than sinister.

From that point on, the tracks on the album get very interchangeable and repetitive with some flashes of creativity especially on the vocals from Soriano on “Pandora’s Box” or the tasty bass line that opens up the final track of “Ashes” but that’s about it.

Overall, if you’re new to NONPOINT, this would not be the best album to start with but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a listen. It’s clear that the band was seeing this album as a “fresh start” and a chance to start the next leg of their career, which is great for their creativity but not the best for the “classic” hard-hitting tracks you may be expecting.