Getting "to the pain" never felt so good

In this day and age of punk rock and rap music dominating the music industry, it's refreshing to hear bands that aren't afraid to play heavy metal. Nonpoint is one such band that has always managed to stay true to their roots and their fans. They have experimented with their sound a number of times over the years, but they always end up redefining themselves and making themselves better.\nTo the Pain is Nonpoint's fourth album and their follow-up to Recoil. For their first two albums Nonpoint proved to be an above average nu-metal band that did not receive a lot of fanfare. It was at this point that their lead singer, Elias Soriano, grew tired of making hard-hitting and angry nu-metal records. He decided that the band should essentially turn down the anger and turn up the melody. The result was last year's smash hit album Recoil. It seems as though old habits die hard, because on To the Pain, Nonpoint fused together the best of their first album and combined some melodies off of their third to produce a crunchy and sometimes melodic set of tracks for their new album.\nThe first song and single from the CD is the track "Bullet with a Name." This track starts off with a very ominous tone as the listener can only hear the sounds of a clip being loaded into a gun. Soon after, the beat kicks in and is powered on by a heavy churning riff. "The Wreckoning" is one of the angriest sounding songs on the CD. It is powered by some blisteringly gritty guitar riffs, which are perfect for head banging. In between all of the hard-hitting, fast-paced metal songs, there are two instrumental ballads. The first is entitled "Ren-Dishen," which is very slow and has some nice guitar and drum work. The second is the beginning to another song, but is actually a song in itself. This song is called "Longest Beginning" and it's the three-minute introduction to "Shortest Ending."\nTo the Pain may be Nonpoint's most aggressive album to date. If you were more a fan of Recoil or if you don't really like heavy metal, then I think you will be disappointed in this latest release. However if you liked their first two albums, then this one is definitely worth checking out.