When drummer Dave Chavarri quit Pro-Pain, he soon formed a new band called El Nino. Although experimenting with different styles ‘n sounds, El Nino did not quite take off. When Soulfly’s Max Cavalera needed an interim drummer for their tour, Dave dropped his own project (temporarily), and joined Soulfly on the road. While playing with Max, Dave realized that ‘tribal-metal’ was the sound he was looking for in his own band. So the minute he got back from the tour he resurrected his own band, renaming it Ill Niño, and things sparked from there.
The band released it’s debut, ‘Revolution/Revolución’, through Roadrunner earlier this year. At first you’re tempted to think ‘Gee, another Soulfly clone’, but that would really sell this band short. Agreed, there certainly are a lot of influences reminiscent of Max’s solo project, but isn’t he the man who kind of ‘invented’ that sound in the first place? Didn’t we think every nu-metal band coming out after ’94 was a Korn-clone? What it comes down to is: ‘is the music any good?’.

And in the case of Ill Niño I’d have to say: Hell yeah!!

The songs on Revolution/Revolución are aggressive, but at the same time very melodic and diverse. And although there unmistakably is a tribal sound to the songs, it never feels forced, like a gimmick, something I did think of the occasional Soulfly song.
The production & engineering, which Dave did himself, (though helped by Ron St. Germain (Tool, 311, Soundgarden, Creed) is top notch, making this album sounding real good when you play it full volume on your (car)stereo. One massive record!