Review Summary: Off-Point is More Like It.
I personally believe that just about everyone has their "under dog bands," the kind of groups that don't get much love from the high and mighty music elitists, and are fairly unknown to the mainstream, but still have their redeeming qualities that make you want to see them succeed. Nonpoint, for me, has always been one of these groups. Ever since they rode the Nu metal wave to popularity with their "Statement" in 2000 I have enjoyed their latin-spiced hard rock. They may not be the most original, complex, or intelligent sounding group around, but even long after the Nu metal craze wore off they continued to pen solid alt metal records, with their last, 2005's "To the Pain" being perhaps their best to date, bringing their latin and metal tendencies to the forefront while also mixing in some atmospheric textures. It wasn't a masterpiece, but it showed that they were capable of expanding their sound and that they were still relevant.
So with all this in mind I would say that I was at least a little excited to hear what they had in store with their latest effort, "Vengeance," but unfortunately any potential the group showed with To the Pain has been promptly snuffed out with Vengeance. Virtually everything about this album from the blase title to the incredibly generic and lazy song-writing screams mediocre, with the exception being the album art, which just plain sucks. Vengeance is such a step down from any of their past work, it's hard to believe that a band that is so well known for their hard work and killer live shows could produce something so useless. Doing individual song descriptions here would really be pointless considering that the album essentially sounds like one forty minute song of samey sounding groove metal riffs, simplistic drum beats and bass lines, and monotonous, angsty shouts. Rather than bore you with anymore of my squabbles I think it would be far more effective for me to share a recorded dictation of the band's writing process for this album that I found online:
Elias: Hey guys, you know our new album is due at noon tomorrow right?
Band: Huh?
Elias: Dammit would you shut off the friggin' XBOX for five seconds! The deadline for our next album is tomorrow. Bieler will kill us if we push it back again.
Andy: But we haven't even started writing there's no way we'll make it!
Elias: No wait, I have a plan, we can do this.
Band: Huh?
Elias: Here's what we do: Robb you get on the kit and record four beats, you know your fast one, your mid pace one, your slow one, that's crucial for our sappy radio ballad that we're going to pull out of our asses, and maybe a tom beat for good measure.
Robb: Okey Dokey Little Shmokey!
Elias: Alright now Andy, ya know that riff you were jamming on the other day, just record yourself playing it over and over again with only minor differences, like maybe a different chord or note here and there. Oh, and this is important, NO SOLOS! And none of that latiny stuff we do from time to time either, that'll take far too much thought.
Andy: Aw are you serious I've been practicing my chops like crazy, it's high time I got a chance to show off!
Elias: No time, we've got twelve hours to pull this off.
Andy: Oh pretty, pretty please!
Elias: Fine, fine, but only on one song. You can do a very simple one on that ballad I mentioned, which I just came up with a very original name for that no one has ever thought of..."Breathe."
Andy: Wow that's awesome I've never heard of a song called that before!
Elias: And uh, KB just follow along with whatever Andy does, nuthin' too fancy, we've got a deadline to meet.
KB: You got it mayne.
Elias: And I will put on the finishing touch by shouting through all the tracks about how society has wronged me and how we all need to take some kind of stand against it in my angriest voice. Then we'll just apply some loops, cut and paste, and we're golden.
Robb: Wait what are we gonna call it? We need a title that will sound tuff and make our fans still think we're still hxc.
Elias: I've got another very original idea, let's call it Vengeance!
Band: THIS ALBUM WILL BE AWESOME!!!
Andy: Lets do dis s**t.
