Since May, Ozzfest 2001, this year’s version of rocker Ozzy Osbourne’s annual metalfest, has been rumbling through America’s heartland, leaving behind a trail of mosh pits and mayhem.
Now, after shaking up the West Coast, Ozzfest is bulldozing its way down South, making stops in Atlanta, Tampa and, on July 17, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte.
Osbourne, who last year said he would not return as an act on the tour, will be back for 2001 with Black Sabbath and acts like Marilyn Manson, and Crazy Town will share the mainstage with him.
But the true test of the tour’s potency has come on the second stage where newer metal acts, such as Mudvayne, Taproot, Godhead and Nonpoint, are rocking out.
South Florida-based Nonpoint, which has been described by Rolling Stone as an “alternative/rap metal” band, is cracking metal heads with last year’s debut MCA Records release, “Statement.”
But the boys in the band are no new kids on the block.
The culturally diverse quartet finally joined forces a few years ago after drummer Robb Rivera relocated from his native Puerto Rico and moved to Florida hoping to put together the ultimate band. That’s where he met leadman Elias Soriano whose friend, who was playing bass for the band then known as Nonpoint Factor, suggested he audition.
“After I sang, the drummer was like, ‘You’re in the band!’”Soriano, now lead vocalist and lyricist, remembers.
But then the bass player left and the drummer “started to fizzle.” Enter guitarist/vocalist Andrew Goldman and bassist KB and Nonpoint was created.
“It’s kind of like falling in love,”Soriano says. “You know when it’s right.”
Soriano says it is hard to put a thumb on the band’s sound. But if it was a flavor of the month, he says it would be Rocky Road — an accurate description when you listen to the music that all at once serves up teeth-grinding guitar, rock-hard drumming, bumping bass and sometimes adding smooth vocals to chew on. It all hits the right spot.
The members bring individual components for this mind-numbing recipe from their own experience, from Rivera’s hard core rock roots to Soriano’s memories of salsa and meringue music in his grandparents’ house.
Soriano, whose own musical picks range from Steely Dan and Incubus to Erykah Badu, Boyz II Men and D’Angelo, raved along with the rest of the young South Florida scene, but it was the way his parents seasoned his tastes with the sounds of groups like Boston, Journey and Led Zeppelin that drew him back to rock.
He says when the R&B and rave sets “starting getting saturated with the idiots of society and … the songs didn’t move”him anymore, he was reminded of how good rock tasted to him after buying the first Korn album.
But it wasn’t until he went for the first time to a live concert by Puerto Rican group Puya, that he was inspired him to join a band. Nonpoint is now Puya’s MCA labelmate.
“I was lucky to see that band as my first rock band. They set the standards for me as what a band should be,” Soriano says. “They’re an awesome band. They rock!”
Now Soriano is so fused to his rock roots that he says he can’t wait for the next album, any rock album, not just theirs, to come out.
Soriano says he and his bandmates have forged their way to the top, which took 2-1/2 years, by paying their dues. That meant “starting from the bottom,” playing for small crowds, as few as 12 people, in obscure places.
“We told them to bring a friend and it went from 50 to 100, then 100 to 500 and 500 to 1,000 for about a year. And then the local radio station had to listen.”
They had gotten to the point where they were gaining a dedicated following, selling out to mobs of fans. Then producer and recorder Jason Bieler “called everyone he knew in the industry”and they were invited to lunch and dinner dates by nearly all the recording labels.
“But MCA was there from the beginning,” Soriano remembers. And the label offered the musicians something they wanted: creative freedom.
“We were looking for someone to be fair, and hopefully we’ve made the right decision,” the leadman says. “We ain’t gonna dress up like a dancing bear or wear any sparkly (stuff). We’re gonna do it our way or we ain’t gonna do it. There’s a compromise you have to make with everybody and we understand that. This is a business. But there’s a certain kind of integrity we want to keep.”
With that creative freedom, too, comes the opportunity to positively influence fans — most of whom range in age from 14 to 17. It’s reflected in the titles of their previous two albums, 1997’s “Separate Yourself” and “Struggle”from 1998. Even in the song, “Endure,” from “Statement,” Soriano sings:
“Not even with ten men holding Me back/ not even with a devious planned attack/ contemplating every move that I play/willing the bad things all away/ keeping the worry-free happiness philosophy/ that’s what I let them see when they try to look at Me./ Don’t want out./ These issues arise everyday,/ though you try to turn your head and walk away,/ though it leave you feeling insecure/ you’re gonna feel your life mature./ Endure.”
And though their main goal is to entertain, Soriano says, “I don’t want anybody killing somebody because of one of our songs. I don’t want anyone to spin our records backwards and say, ‘Kill, kill.’ ”
The fans seem to love the music, the message and the messengers.
Soriano says one of the highlights of the band’s career thus far was when they played a music festival in Florida to a crowd of about 30,000.
“We had a prime spot. The sun had just gone down, and just hearing our hometown crowd singing ‘What a Day’ (from “Statement”) was amazing. It was amazing. It was a very satisfying moment.”
But Nonpoint won’t stop with just being satisfied. With a lot of hard practice, the band’s members have managed to make the lineup at Ozzfest.
From there, after their own tour, they will continue to work on their next album, a release Soriano describes as “a metaphorical person, part of a couple.”
Beyond that, Soriano can’t predict what will happen. He just hopes that the honesty of Nonpoint’s music, the need to write good music and the desire to entertain will keep the band buoyant on this trip.
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