ILL NIÑO – One Nation Underground

Who’d a thought that there would be a band that sounded like a mix of Linkin Park and Sepultura? Not many! Especially not one that mixes these two bands up with angry Spanish lyrics, Santana-sounding guitars, and Latino rhythms. Sound exciting? Well, then you should give Ill Niño a try!

It’s rare to see a band come up with this kind of mixed music, but just by looking on their Web site makes it easy to see why. These guys’ heritage comes from all over, but most of them are born in South-America and live in the USA. Succeeding in making their music so modern is even more rare. A lot of bands have tried, but they fail so miserably. This is not the case with Ill Niño.

This is Ill Niño’s third full-length album with Roadrunner Records, and it seems this third record has made the band dig deep within themselves to find the music from their hearts. The production in itself is good, so too has the marketing of the band. They already have a hit single played on the radio called “What You Deserve.” You might have heard it, and thought it was a new song by Linkin Park, but it’s just Ill Niño biting their ass … and a good thing for Ill Niño and fans is that they have an album full of Modern Metal with songs that stand out, just like “What You Deserve.”

This album actually never gets boring, because of the mixed elements they have brought into it… unusual elements like bongo drums, the mix of English and Spanish voices, and not to forget the incredible voice of Cristian Machado, who has the ability to go from a soft Nu Metal sound, almost like Chester Bennington (Linkin Park), to hard, raw screaming from the bottom of his lungs. Quite impressive, especially the way they have mixed up his voices on the album. It’s really hard to hear if it’s all him or it the band has two singers, which they don’t.

Also the lyrics on this thirteen-track album have to be mentioned. It’s obvious that Ill Niño is a band that are socially aware. The album is called One Nation Underground because of the dividing of the societies around the world, and because of the things we see around us but do not dare or care to talk about. This album is not a political fanfare, but more about opening your eyes to the differences within the world. Finally there’s a Metal band that sings about other things besides killing, screwing, and other superficial stuff.

If the Metal world doesn’t get to hear more from Ill Niño within the next year, then the Metal world will be the ones losing out.