Combining the alt-metal intensity of early
Deftones and
Soulfly with plaintive, post-grunge choruses,
Ill Niño deliver another dose of melodic nu metal on their fifth studio album,
Dead New World. With its rapid shifts from soaring to searing, the album has a kind of capricious feeling about it, abusing you with massive, chugging riffs and growling vocals before extending a hand of friendship with a big rock chorus, only to pull it away at the last moment as the verse comes back again and knocks you back to the floor. Whichever mode
Ill Niño are in, they always make sure to keep the intensity level up with a relentless barrage of furious guitar work and thunderous, almost tribal, drumming. Truly separating the band from the rest of the pack are the Latin flourishes that pop up on songs like “How Could I Believe” and “Mi Revolucion.” Little things like this help
Dead New World break out of the mold for the genre that’s been so firmly cast, allowing
Ill Niño to continue to deliver the hard-hitting metal that their fans have come to expect over the last decade.