Ill Niño

Ill Niño (typeset in lowercase as ill niño due to certain fonts having lowercase L and uppercase I resemble each other) is an American six-piece Latin metal band from New Jersey.

History

Ill Niño was founded in 1998, had released a demo EP in that same year with Jorge Rosado on vocals and Christian playing bass. The EP was entitled El Niño, when they were originally called El Niño, after the weather phenomenon. It wasn't until 1999 that they had officially formalized. After Rosado's return to his band Merauder, the band held auditions for a new vocalist, but ultimately decided that the best decision was for Christian to step up to vocals. El Niño, recently having changed their name because it was already being used by another band, then released another demo EP in 2000, the first that was readily available to the public, and they signed with Roadrunner Records shortly thereafter.

They released their debut album, Revolution Revolución, on September 18, 2001. In support of the album's release, the band was part of the Ozzfest and Jägermeister tours in 2002. The album's single, "What Comes Around," also received significant airplay on MTV2 in late 2001. In early 2003, right before Ill Niño was set to record the follow-up to Revolution Revolución, guitarist Marc Rizzo and percussionist Roger Vasquez left the band, due to personal conflicts and the desire to pursue different projects. Rizzo stayed aboard long enough to record the guitars for the new album, and they got percussionist Danny Couto to replace Roger Vasquez for the recording. Shortly before the release of Confession, the band hired Ahrue Luster, formerly of Machine Head, to fill the vacant guitar spot.

Ill Niño's follow-up effort, Confession, was released on September 30, 2003. The album debuted at #37 on the Billboard 200 charts.^[1] The lead single, "How Can I Live," featured on the Freddy vs. Jason soundtrack, and was subsequently their first single to break into the Billboard charts, peaking at #26 on the mainstream rock charts. The album had sold more than 110,000 copies in the US within its first five months of release and is considered by some to be Ill Niño's best album so far.^[2]

The band's third effort, One Nation Underground, was released on September 27, 2005. The album debuted at #101 on the Billboard 200 charts^[3], and struggled to sell as well as its predecessor Confession. The band announced they had parted ways with Roadrunner Records on July 15, 2006.^[4]

Nine days later, it was announced that Ill Niño had signed new deal with the recently formed Cement Shoes Records. Drummer Dave Chavarri stated that their split from Roadrunner was "amicable" but felt that they weren't getting the proper attention and support from Roadrunner they had received on their past two releases.^[5] Somewhere in this time period, for reasons unknown, the band parted ways with guitarist Jardel Paisante, and replaced him with Diego Verduzco.

Roadrunner Records released The Best of Ill Niño on September 29, 2006. The album features 13 tracks from their three Roadrunner releases. However, it was only issued in the US.

As a lead-up to their Cement Shoes debut, the band released the five-track EP The Under Cover Sessions on November 7, 2006. Three cover versions were recorded, which included Faith No More's "Zombie Eaters," Nirvana's "Territorial Pissings," and Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain." Two new tracks, "Arrastra" and "Reservation for Two," were also included. 1,300 copies were sold in its first week of release.^[6]

The band's fourth full-length album, Enigma, was due for release on October 9, 2007, but was pushed back several times, eventually being released on March 11, 2008.^[7]

• In March 2008, Cement Shoes Records released 'Enigma' without paying the Engineers and Editors of the album for their work. Subsequently, 'Enigma' was permanently pulled from the iTunes music store and other digital music outlets. Most of the engineers and editors that worked on the album have still not been paid and have taken legal action against Ill Niño and Cement Shoes Records.

They have toured Europe, Eastern Europe, America and South America in support of their fourth studio album Enigma and in January 2009 parted ways with the record label Cement Shoes Records and since then have been searching for a new one, but during there downtime in 2009, Cristian Machado and Laz Pina have been busy producing bands in their home state of New Jersey with there production company, Sound Wars Studios. Ahrue Luster has also been producing artists with his production company, Illustrious Productions, in Colorado, whereas Diego Verduzco has been busy running his tattoo shop in California called, Artifact Tattoo.

In winter of 2009/2010 the band have started work on their upcoming fifth studio album to be released in the summer of 2010. They have also confirmed a number of European festivals for the summer of 2010 in support of their upcoming album.

Members

• Cristian Machado – Lead Vocals (2000-Present), Bass Guitar (1998-2000)
• Diego Verduzco – Rhythm Guitar (2006-Present)
• Ahrue Luster – Lead Guitar (2003-Present)
• Lazaro Pina – Bass Guitar (2000-Present)
• Dave Chavarri – drums (1998-Present)
• Daniel Couto – percussion (2003-Present)

Former

• Jorge Rosado – vocals (1998-2000)
• Marc Rizzo – Lead Guitar (1998-2003)
• Roger Vasquez – percussion (2000-2003)
• Jardel Martins Paisante – Rhythm Guitar (1998-2006)
• Daniel Gomez - Guitars (1998-1999)

Guests

• DJ Pookie- keyboards/Turntables/Electronics on self-titled EP
• Omar Clavijo – keyboards/Turntables/Electronics (For all studio recordings after self-titled) was official/touring member from Summer 2003 until Spring 2004
• Max Illidge – vocals on "Have You Ever Felt?"
• Chino Moreno - vocals on "Zombie Eaters" (Faith no More cover)
• Mikey Doling – Guitar on "Two (Vaya Con Dios)"
• Jamey Jasta – vocals on "Turns to Gray"

Discography

Studio albums

Other releases

• Ill Niño EP (2000)
• The Best of Ill Niño (2006)
• The Under Cover Sessions EP (2006)
• Demo Sessions (2008)

Singles

DVD

References

External links

• Ill Niño at MySpace
• Ill Niño World - the biggest Ill Niño fansite in the world
• Russian fan site