NONPOINT 'The Last Word'

NONPOINT
The Last Word 
361 Degrees Records

For every band out there, every album is that group’s best.  It is an all too familiar line that audiences have gotten from bands across the board for ages.  Sadly, it is a line that holds true less often than one would like to think.  Luckily there are some exceptions to that rule out there and NONPOINT’s forthcoming latest album, The Last Word, is the latest to prove itself that exception to the rule.  Scheduled for release Sept. 18 via the band’s own label, 361 Degrees Records, the 10-song record (also its shortest to date at only 28 minutes), it really is the band’s best full-length studio recording to date.  That is due in no small part to its featured musical arrangements.  The lyrical themes that accompany that musical material adds to that appeal in its own way, as does the collective sequencing and production of the album.  Each item noted is important in its own way to the whole of The Last Word.  All things considered, they make The Last Word a presentation that will leave audiences hoping it will not be the last album from this veteran band.

The Last Word, the forthcoming latest album from NONPOINT, is the band’s strongest record to date.  Its success comes in no small part through its featured musical body.  At points, the arrangements offer a solid blend of familiarity and growth.  At others, the arrangements offer something wholly new and unique.  That whole makes the record’s musical body a solid foundation for The Last Word.  Right from the album’s outset, listeners get that blend of familiarity and growth in ‘Failing the Conversation.’  Guitarists Jaysin Zeilstra and Rasheed Thomas lead the way here, throwing back to the sound and style that really helped NONPOINT break out in 2000 with its debut album, Statement, while building on that to make a work that is wholly its own.  Drummer/founding member Robb Rivera and bassist Adam Woloszyn add their own touch alongside fellow founding member and vocalist Elias Soriano.  The collective performances make this song a solid first impression from this latest outing.

‘Is It,’ ‘The Last Word,’ and ‘Shoreline’ also exhibit that blend of familiar and new, the result being full engagement and entertainment in each work, too.  Meanwhile, a song, such as ‘Dial Tones’ easily lends itself to comparison to works from Discrepancies while also clearly adding a touch of Limp Bizkit.  The duality therein makes this arrangement another easy choice for this record.

As the record reaches its final two entries, ‘Fine Print’ and ‘Settled,’ the band shows more growth than ever, going in a more melodic hard rock direction than ever before.  Again, some hints of the works that the band has crafted in its existing albums are there but more than ever, audiences hear so much growth and change in these final two songs.  The prior conjures thoughts of songs from the likes of Saul and others of its ilk while the latter goes in a full aggro-rock direction that is entirely infectious.  They collectively put a solid period to the album, closing it out just as strongly as it opened.  When these two songs are considered alongside the rest of The Last Word’s arrangements, that entirety makes this album the band’s most focused and honestly best album to date.

No doubt the musical arrangements featured throughout The Last Word do more than enough to make the album worth hearing.  They are just one of the positives to note herein.  The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s musical material makes for its own appeal.  Case in point is the theme featured in the album’s lead single, ‘Is It.’  Soriano has been cited as stating the song’s lyrical theme centers on a familiar matter.  He explained that the theme herein is one of a person’s inner struggling, wondering if what one has done was enough or too much.  In other words, was trying to help really a good thing in the end or was it more detriment.  Everyone has reached that moment at one point or another at least once in life if not more times.  The message is well-illustrated as Soriano sings in the song’s chorus, “Am I to blame/Am I to blame for/Is this just another reason/For me to be/Justified/to be so outta control?/Didn’t wanna have to break it to you/Didn’t wanna have to be the one to tell you/Didn’t wanna make a problem/Anybody?/I mean anybody/Help me with an explanation.”  Here is that inner turmoil that so many have faced in various situations delivered so clearly.  Keeping that in mind, this theme is familiar and accessibly delivered, clearly making it an example of the important of the album’s lyrical themes.

‘Red Yeti,’ the album’s second single, is another important example of the place of The Last Word’s lyrical themes.  In the case of this song, it comes across as being a call for listeners to let go of the past and just move on.  This is inferred in the song’s lead verse and chorus, which find Soriano rapping, “I replayed the clip a thousand times/I watched you sink up to your eyes/Tried to kill the noise/but the echo stayed/Try to do the math/You can watch me laugh/I scared the kids/And ghosted through/I let one off/And cleared the room/Speaking in codes/Now you got me red/Phone was making noise/’Cause the line is dead/Snow won’t cover these tracks/What’s gone is gone/And it won’t come back/Life that you’re hanging by a thread/Shed every bad feeling that’s running through your head/Red Yeti.”  Those lines in the lead verse are complimented by Sky Sweetnam adding her own touch, essentially saying to people who had done wrong in the past, she is moving on past them.  This as she adds at one point, “I left the cage/Said f*** the zoo.”  That zoo is the “wild” of the negative people and factors of the past.  The rest of the song follows in similar fashion.  To that end, the message here is one of familiarity that is certain to connect with audiences in its own way thanks to its own accessibility, too.  

‘Fine Print,’ the album’s penultimate entry, is yet one more way in which the album’s lyrical content proves so important.  Full discretion, having no lyrics to directly reference, not all of the lyrics could be fully deciphered.  Soriano opens by singing, “Make sure you read all the fine print/Sure you make up your mind with…Sure you get what you came for/What you’re willing to trade for/Everything that you paid for/Is enough to fool you twice/’Cause they’ve got promises, promises/I know something is wrong with this/I don’t know what will become of this…”  Lyrics really are needed for much of this, but even with that being the case, the chorus sees a refrain at least twice, seeming to hint at a message of not letting oneself be fooled by anyone or anything in life.  If that is in fact that case, then it is another message that is sure to resonate with listeners in its own right, further showing the importance of the album’s lyrical themes.  When this seeming message is considered along with the others examined here and that group with the rest of the album’s lyrical content, that entirety makes for just as much reason for audiences to take in The Last Word as the album’s musical arrangements.

Putting the final touch to the whole of The Last Word is its collective sequencing and production.  From beginning to end of its nearly 30-minute run time, the album’s sequencing changes things up just enough to keep things interesting.  This applies to the album’s musical and lyrical content alike.  The album opens and closes with a pair of pummeling works that hold their own alongside the rest of the record’s musical arrangements.  From there, the album keeps the energy on high as each arrangement changes the vibe and style from one to the next.  In regard to the lyrical themes, they change just as much, adding another layer of enjoyment.  

The record’s production ensures through so much heaviness and energy that no one band member’s performance overpowers the work of his fellow musicians.  The result therein is a fully positive aesthetic impact.  Between the positive production and the sequencing, that whole offers The Last Word a fully positive general effect that, when coupled with the album’s overall content, completes the presentation.  The positive of all involved leaves The Last Word easily one of this year’s top new hard rock and metal albums and hopefully not the last of NONPOINT’s albums anytime soon.

The Last Word is scheduled for release Sept. 18 through NONPOINT’s own label, 361 Degrees Records.  More information on the album is available along with all of NONPOINT’s latest news at:

Website: https://nonpoint.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nonpointofficial
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nonpoint

5.0 Out Of 5.0