Ill Niño - Till Death, La Familia

Published July 28 2014

*=Staff's pick	Live Like There's No Tomorrow Not Alive In My Nightmare I'm Not The Enemy Blood Is Thicker Than Water Are We So Innocent Pray I Don't Find You World So Cold Dead Friends Breaking The Rules Payaso My Bullet*

Genre	Heavy/Alternative/Latin Metal	Cristian Machado	Vocals
Tracks	11	Ahrue Luster	Guitar
Running time	44 Min.	Diego Verduzco	Guitar
Label	Victory Records	Lazaro Pina	Bass
Release	22 July 2014	Dave Chavarri	Drums
Country	USA	Oscar Santiago	Percussion
Producer	Eddie Wohl and Dave Chavarri w/ Ill Niño
Similar artists	---

The seventh album from New Jersey's latin metallers and ever since I first listened to this outfit's full length debut Revolution Revolución back in late 2001, they've had an impact on me with their different and unconventional type of metal. It's a no brainer that the band includes many Latin rhythms in its enraged heavy metal, but that simple fact also makes this band rather one of a kind though, at least the way I see it.

Lead vocalist Cristian Machado sounds as angry as he usually does with his somewhat untamed and foul language. No unique phenomenon, but he mostly alternates between two floating states, like many other singers, meaning cleaner vocals in the choruses and that he is keeping it on a much more violent level in the verses. The latter takes most of his time and efforts, but it's not like he's using his voice to generate the worst, ugliest and cruelest guttural roars out of a deep canyon. Also I think that he has lost some of the strength and the skill for precision that he had in the beginning of the band's career. At that early point he also sang a lot of the vocals in Spanish, which now seems to be nothing but a memory of a distant past.

Besides the last song, My Bullet, the album unquestionably has an absence of ups and downs, which is on the verge of being a disadvantage, because you can't find something that differs itself from the rest and also stands out to kick your ass severely and whose impulse strikes like a ton of bricks when you listen to it. Although I get the feeling of something repetitive, written before, changes in tempo and vibe keep this record alive for forty-four minutes and fans to Ill Niño will probably embrace this release, even if it's pretty far from the band's most solid work.