I can't say the alternative/nu-metal scene has ever been really interesting to me, but there are still many good bands in this often maligned area of metal. Nothingface shows that they know how to get it done on their third studio album, with no compromises and plenty of ass-kicking music.

Right from the beginning the complex and extremely heavy riffing style that begins Make Your Own Bones gets me interested in this album. It reminds me of Disturbed except better. The growled vocals from frontman Matt Holt aren't the best, but I can honestly feel the anger and rage this guy is trying to express. Toward the end of the song you get a taste of his clean singing voice and it's actually pretty good. Again, not a great voice, but it is definitely able to convey emotion as it needs to. Bleeder is a catchy as hell track with heavy double-bass drumming and melodic guitar work. This time the vocalist uses his clean voice for the most part. I realize the vocals will probably be the take it or leave it point for most people simply because he has a voice that is different in many ways from the usual metal vocalist and he sounds very modern for lack of a better term. Most of the rest of the songs fall into the fast to mid-paced category, and use the same basic type of heavy riffing combined with double bass drumming and catchy bass lines. There is a lot of skillfully done guitar work here, not just in the technical ability but also the way the songs are constructed. The riffs flow together without being the same constantly which I find to be something that holds a number of nu-metal bands back. These guys do not feel the need to repeat themselves very often and it makes for a varied and interesting listen. That being said, there are of course similarities in the songs, but they are positive. There is also a lack of serious guitar solos, but it wasn’t really a glaring problem on the album for me as the playing is complex enough as it is. Sometimes the duel between clean and growled vocals gets a bit old though.

Most of this entire album is just very heavy and hard-hitting and doesn’t come off as something insincere. On almost every song I feel like these guys are giving it their best shot to convey their emotion and I feel like they really get behind the music. Their influences are pretty obvious, but the band never comes off sounding too similar to anyone else out there. I noticed that the production also emphasizes the heaviest parts of the sound so you can really feel the drums and lower guitar with a larger stereo. This is one of those rare cases when an album is certainly titled appropriately. Violence was obviously made to display musical aggression and that's exactly what it accomplishes in a great albeit more modern way.