Ill Niño’s seminal album Revolution Revolución marked the beginning for the founders of Latin metal and a change in the metal scene. Ill Niño brought flair, metal and authenticity to the table, meshing Latino passion with an aggressive metal assault. Ultimately, Ill Niño were thrust into greatness and the New Jersey band continue to dominate over a decade since their debut. Before they hit Australian shores to perform their historic album in its entirety, lead singer Cristian Machado looks back and reflects on what it is about Ill Niño’s music that means it is still so relevant and so revered today. “It’s an album that pushed the boundaries a little bit,” says Machado, “It included things that weren’t in the metal scene at the time, especially with experimenting with instruments that weren’t what you’d hear in metallic kind of bands.
“I don’t think we reinvented anything, I don’t think we did anything out of the ordinary but we tried the best we could to put a bit of culture in to metal, create a little space for us in the metal community. Lucky for us all the fans really took to it right away, mostly by word of mouth. The album had something cool and refreshing at the time and the fans accepted it as their own. They were attached to it, at least in some ways, the same way we were when we wrote the songs.”
Indeed, the combination of Ill Niño’s Latino heritage with upbeat melodies under often brooding lyrics, created a kind of romanticism for the genre. Machado’s lyrics, he agrees, were often conflicted back then. “It’s almost like, who was I? I think I was so confused in my life, at a point where I wasn’t sure which way I was headed – that confusion added to a lot of the unstable lyrics on the album, things that play toward somebody who’s having a lot of conflict.
“I think that’s the way it works for [the album], I never thought about it like that before – the lyrics are very conflicting and you can tell that as a person I was very confused and didn’t know really what the point behind my life might have been – but when you’re a young band doing stupid stuff, basically being kids, the one thing that’s cool about the debut album is that 16, 17 years later, we get to come back and perform the songs with a little bit more of musical maturity I guess, psychological perspective that’s maybe a little more put together.”
Ill Niño’s return to Australian stages won’t just be marked by an improvement in musical integrity thanks to life experience, their shows will welcome fans who, much like Machado, were brooding and confused young people in 2001 when Revolution Revolución was released. But this particular album is such that it has transcended generations – the success and style of Ill Niño is such that Machado can expect younger fans to be in attendance, a whole host of people who can relate to Ill Niño and other members of their loyal fan base.
“It’s interesting that I feel, at the time in the early 2000s, it seemed like the rock ‘n’ roll years were starting to evolve into something more mature, perhaps disconnect from all the fans that we had any love for. I think now the thing that maybe connects our music to young kids is that the world is pretty much in the same state it was in, full of disconnect – people have discharged themselves from friendships and the people they love, a big learning curve when it comes to technology.
“One thing I know that’s kept our fans together is just that a lot of them have made friends, a brotherhood. I don’t know if it’s because the band was doing something different and being a fan of something like that, you seek for other people you can connect with and perhaps, somewhere in the middle there’s something that brings everyone together… but our fans definitely have a brotherhood and sisterhood I don’t see much in other fans of other bands.”
“A lot of them have become really good friends with us personally. I think the years can definitely lead in to something that’s genuine. We were always trying to say something that came from the heart, play instruments that meant a lot to us – perhaps that’s the one thing that mean we’re able to still make fans that are young and have them love the band.”
For Ill Niño, the fans are at the heart of everything they do and Machado knows he is lucky they are so open-minded. With such a powerful and authentic sense of comradery, nostalgia and friendship will be rife for all at Ill Niño’s live performances – but Australian fans are thirsty to know what Machado and company have in store for them. “You can expect a kick-ass show,” he laughs.
Ill Niño play the Metro Theatre in Sydney, on Friday.
