Nonpoint

The Fort Lauderdale-birthed four-piece Nonpoint came up in the late 1990s, a particularly fertile time in South Florida for experimental heavy rock. At clubs like Cheers, Fubar, and other one-named venues long defunct, they'd share the bill with other arty-but-loud local leading lights like Endo, Darwin's Waiting Room, and the Groovenics. And although Endo was briefly signed to a major label and it appeared that bigger things would happen for those other peers, Nonpoint was the only act of that scene to break out on a massive scale. Perhaps it's because the band eschewed much of the out-there stuff, stripping its sound down to its bare essence — hard-driving, aggressive grooves that dovetailed well with the so-called "nü-metal" thing happening nationally. But Nonpoint has, amazingly, outlasted even all of those guys. The secret to its success seems to be in its realization that its kind of band is best felt, live. The band spends the majority of its time on the road and has thus built a loyal, ever-growing following willing to buy tickets to get their faces rocked off. And although the band split with label Bieler Bros. earlier this year, Nonpoint has announced — via Twitter, of course! — that it's recorded some 20-plus songs from which to cull a new album.