Whoever still doesn’t know Ill Niño should stop reading here and become a rapper or jazz musician. Stop calling yourself a metalhead. You’re not. You may not like this band, but at least you should have heard of it. So, these New Jersey latin dudes have a new album out. Not on Roadrunner Records this time but on Cement Shoes. Let’s go sing some Spanish lyrics shall we?!

Musically the band hasn’t changed that much. There’s still some heavy riffs, brutal outbursts in Chis’ singing and a great dose of percussion skills. The music is melodic, heavy at times, but above all it’s catchy. The songs hold your attention and that makes you sing along with them as soon as you’ve heard them a couple of times. That has always been the strength of Ill Niño and I’m having the feeling it always will be. So if you’re into not-too-complex metal with Spanish influences and catchy melodies, this is your band.

The song ‘Kellogs, Bombs & Cracker Jacks’ has a really nice percussion part in it which is typical for Ill Niño’s style. Apart from mostly melodic vocals in this song, it is one of the more aggressive songs on the album. Which is, in my opinion, a bit softer than its predecessors. There’s even more space for latin influences and a song like ‘Me Gusta La Soledad’ almost belongs to the list of ballads. Also ‘De Sangre Hermosa’ has beautiful vocal parts in it which almost gave me goosebumps. It must be your thing – yeah I know, quite some people hate this band for it’s melodic approach – but when it is, it’s great! And I think that diehard Ill Niño fans will still dig this album although the whole thing has become somewhat softer than most of them are used to.

What’s left to say? Everybody knows this band by now and some may like Enigma more than One Nation Underground, some won’t like it that much. Fact is, if you are a fan, you just go visit these guys on their European tour which they will kick off soon. See ya there!