Let me start off by admitting that I owned an Ill Nino CD years ago. Towards the end of my misguided nu-metal foray and my discovery of hardcore, Ill Nino bridged a weird gap. For some reason they had ties to certain hardcore bands and were actually more melodic than most nu-metal bands, but make no mistake, they were and still are nu-metal.
The big shtick with Ill Nino is that they are "latin metal". Ok, who fucking cares, as far as I know this was a two band sub-genre between them and Puya and nobody seemed too impressed. I was shocked to see that Ill Nino is still around, then I laughed to see they now call Victory Records home. This is their sixth full length and frontman Cristian Machado says "It's 2012 and we're all still alive. It's time to redefine Latin metal."
Here is how you redefine latin metal:
1. Add some guttural vocals that contrast horribly with the melodic singing.
2. Get the douchebag from Emmure to scream on a song.
3. Shoot a shitty video in an empty swimming pool where the douchebag from Emmure and Machado run around by themselves yelling at the camera.
4. Use some "tribal beats".
5. Concoct a confusing mishmash of nu-metal, death metal, "tribal beats" and metalcore that pleases no one.
6. More sensual vocals, make the pussies hot.
7. Mosh part, make the pussies cry.
I'd like to go back and hear the demo that was recorded with Jorge Rosado (Merauder), to see the difference 15 years has made on this band. I'd like to imagine it started off better, but going back and listening to 2001's Revolution Revolucion it is pretty much the same shit.
In the end this is a nu-metal band on Victory Records, I don't think anything else needs said.
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