Ill Niño - Epidemia

Published October 11 2012

*=Staff's pick	The Depression* Only The Unloved* La Epidemia Eva* Demi-God Death Wants More Escape Time Won't Save You Forgive Me Father… Invisible People*

Genre	Latin Metal	Cristian Machado	Vocals
Tracks	10	Ahrue Luster	Guitar
Running time	37 Min.	Diego Verduzco	Guitar
Label	AFM Records	Laz Pina	Bass
Release	26 October 2012	Dave Chavarri	Drums
Country	USA	Daniel Couto	Percussion
Producer	-
Similar artists	---

Almost on the day, two years past their latest release, Dead New World, American latin metal outfit is back with their sixth full length album. With their metal, or perhaps nu-metal, deriving from Latin and tribal rhythms and also singing in both English and to some degree in Spanish, they have created their own unique style. With only thirty-seven minutes of playing time, I feel it's no big thing to listen to this album several times in a row. I tend to like those albums, clocking in at forty minutes or less, as they hardly leave any room for fillers and it's indeed difficult to master the art of creating longer and still interesting albums.

Epidemia is kind of a document of what they've done before and by that, the music is still heavily based on their rhythms. It's sometimes aggressive and angry with semi-growls, yet partly melodic, captivating and enthralling with Machado's clean vocals. It of course also has a wide range of rhythms and is creating a wall of sound with multiple percussions, who are filling up every fraction of space. It certainly don't break any new ground and if you're familiar with the band, you know what you will receive.

Too much compression in the production sometimes causes bits of distortion and I think that it would have been pretty easy to avoid those peaks just by listening to the final product. This however doesn't affect the songs significantly and nonetheless, with Ill Niño, it's supposed to be kind of rough and not too well polished.

I've been a fan of Ill Niño since their full length debut, Revolution Revolución, and I think this album pretty much stands up to their past work, even if it's not their best release thus far. The band has stated that this album will show new sides of the band, since they have written songs and worked without any restrictions or boundaries, but in my opinion, these new sides are just the natural progress of a band from one album to another. It's Ill Niño to one hundred percent and if you like what they've done before, I see no reason to not get your hands on Epidemia as well.

See also review of: Till Death, La Familia

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	9	5	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe