Ill Niño

The New Jersey-based Latin metal sextet Ill Nino includes members Cristian Machado (vocals), Dave Chavarri (drums), Marc Rizzo (guitars), Jardel Paisante (guitars), Lazaro Pina (bass), and Roger Vasquez (percussion). Most of its members are of South American descent, resulting in a type of music that combines crunchy heavy metal with Latin rhythms and lyrics that alternate between English and Spanish. The idea of Ill Nino began when former Pro Pain member Chavarri was touring as an interim member of Max Cavalerra's Soulfly. Once his tour of duty ended and he returned home, he immediately phoned his friends Rizzo and Machado with the idea of forming an original band (to quote Chavarri, "The idea is to be as heavy as possible and as melodic as possible -- with a Latin twist"), with the other members enlisting shortly thereafter. The new group enjoyed exposure via the New York metal college radio station WSOU and began to gig heavily, opening for the likes of Kittie, Soulfly, Snapcase, plus a co-headlining set at the March Metal Meltdown festival in New Jersey. Soon after, the sextet signed to Roadrunner Records, issuing Ill Nino's debut recording, Revolution/Revolucion in July of 2001. Two years touring to support the record followed before the reappeared in the record stores with 2003's Confession. The live DVD Live from the Eye of the Storm followed a year later with a new album, One Nation Underground, landing in 2005. ~ Greg Prato, Rovi