The nu-metal front is still running strong, at least if you are to judge by Ill Niño's long-delayed new album "Enigma". Those who can't remember, the band was a part of the larger nu-metal movements earlier this decade, where Linkin Park, koRn, Godsmack, Drowning Pool, Mudvayne and that type of bands were the dominant force in the modern rock charts and airwaves. Since then, most of these bands have faded away from their former glory, Ill Niño included, and though they all continue writing music today, they do so in relative obscurity and away from the public spotlight that they enjoyed not so long ago.
Ill Niño has always tried to distinguish themselves from the nu-metal mass with a unique twist: Latin percussion. The drum rhythm takes its cues from South American/Spanish traditional music, and lyrics occasionally appear in Spanish, with some tracks sung in Spanish in their entirety.
But that's about the only original aspect Ill Niño's new album "Enigma" can boast of, as the rest of it re-visits nu-metal highlights song after song. Track one "The Alibi Of Tyrants" sounds like a late 90s koRn track instrumentally, at least if you discount the samba-like drumming in the start of the song. The lead single "Pieces Of The Sun" has heavy guitars and is really catchy, but sounds like a "Hybrid Theory"-era Linkin Park song. "Finger Painting (With The Enemy)" borrows loads of elements from the hit single "Tear Away" from Drowning Pool's "Sinner" that I'm hard pressed to distinguish the two songs apart. At least "Hot Summer's Tragedy" sounds different with its strictly Latin instrumental core, but even here the first thought arising is something like "is this a Status Quo cover in a nu-metal form or what?".
That's also how the rest of the album continues. Influences from bands like Mudvayne and even Disturbed are ever-present, allowing the listener to draw parallels to nu-metal heavyweights from each song. But when the songs are as well written and executed as "Compulsion Of Virus And Fever", for instance, you tend to forget about the lack of originality. Let us remember that we are listening to crushing chord-based music full of singalongable clean choruses and screamed, but decipherable verses. When you're singing along to the lead single, for instance, it doesn't matter that it sounds like someone else. What matters is that it sounds great, and the vast majority of "Enigma" sounds great. Lets face it, most of the bands that Ill Niño is copying from either have disbanded or suck major corporate balls today. "Enigma" has the sound of a band still living at the 200k copies sold era of nu-metal, the sound of a band that is used to writing heavy music, which is just barely catchy enough for the radio.
[8]
Download: Pieces Of The Sun, Compulsion Of Virus And Fever, March Against Me
For the fans of: koRn, Drowning Pool, Linkin Park, Mudvayne
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes
Release date 31.03.2008
AFM Records
Provided by Target ApS› Related items.
