Ill Nino
Revolution Revolucion
Roadrunner
Q calls it “sports metal,” Kerrang! says “nu-metal,” and me? I’d simply label it “tedium.” Okay, that all-too-easy cheap-shot aside, Ill Nino’s Revolution Revolucion debut isn’t all that dodgy. In fact, if you’re not listening too closely, or more accurately still, not expecting much, the record could yet (briefly) pull you in, as guilty as that sounds; they’ve got the nearly stadium-ready Deftones-via-Orgy hooks, occasionally clean-tenored “sensitive dude” melodies, ultra-percussive aggression to spare, and goddamn if you can’t lift weights to this. And how ‘bout it, the sextet sometimes play with an intensity like something’s actually on the line (see one-trick pony “Rumba”). But look at it this way: There’s miles between The Afghan Whigs-on-steroids narcotics of the ‘Tones’ White Pony and this, a record that will never have any remotely broad significance, basically because the whole platter is the epitome of “predictable” • as in, “Are you reaaadddyyyyyyy“-like mosh-groove to nowhere. Nonetheless, coming to a gym or tattoo parlor near you.
Roadrunner Records, 902 Broadway, New York, NY 10010; http://www.illnino.com, http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
