I'm glad I'm the first one to write this review.
One Nation Underground is their 3th album till now (I don't count their EP or DVD) and they learnt from the mistakes they had in their previous albums.
Ill Nino uses nu-metal with spanish flavour (tribal percussion, spanish guitar) and can be heard through the whole album, Christian even sings in spanish (sometimes).
In this album they uses some new things, so this CD can be a bit experimental. I like it very much but it can be true that you don't like it because they got softer in this album then the previous (save for the first 4 and the last one). Another thing I want to mention is that the drummer has improved very much. First he was just a drummer, nothing special but in this album he tries to put all his talent in it and it works out very well.
Ill Nino is:
Cristian Machado- vocals
Dave Chavarri- drums
Jardel Paisante- guitars
Laz Pina- bass
Ahrue Luster- guitars
Danny Couto- percussion
Tracklisting:
01 - This Is War
02 - My Resurrection
03 - What You Deserve
04 - Turns To Gray
05 - De La Vida
06 - Liberacion Of Our Awakening
07 - All I Ask For
08 - Corazon Of Mine
09 - Everything Beautiful
10 - In This Moment
11 - My Pleasant Torture
12 - Barely Breathing
13 - Violent Saint
Well, here's the review.
01 - This Is War
Well, the first track of the CD is a loud, angry song against..?? society, politics??? I don't know, (they never were good at lyrics) but it's just a nice opener of the CD. The track starts with some humming and a guitar where you can hear that this song is very angry. Then the double base comes in :O wow, the drumming from Dave has greatly improved. Then the verse comes and Christian shouts. !!!!!! IMO He just can't shout, it really sounds awful and just when I'm about to skip this track the chorus comes which sounds very cool because then he sings, what he really can do. After a second verse and chorus the bridge/outro comes which is a nice spanish guitar followed by a shouted outro. That's it, a very angry but also heartless song. Not something for me.
Grade 6.5/10
02 - My Resurrection
This is more a song based on the percussion. The song is full of shouted lyrics and no singing in it, that's why it's awful, it's a angry song on the wrong way, heartless, stupid, boring, too hard, un-sctructured song, the only track on this CD which get's a very low grade. I don't want to waste more words.
Grade 2.5/10
03 - What You Deserve
The first single and a great track. It's a fast-paced, sung track but on a very energetic way. The lyrics are a bit cheesy and still a bit simple but they have improved very much on that so this already sounds much better. The guitar drives the chorus and intro and are very energetic. The verse is mainly percussion and sing, another good choice, so it's more structured, different, with better arrangement.
A great song
Grade 8.5/10
04 - Turns To Gray
This is the Revolucion/Revolution track on One Nation Underground. Everything is hard and harsh except for the chorus which is melodic and loud. The lyrics are still not very good but it's on the right way. A great plus is that the bass can be heard better then all the songs before but a great min is that the chorus only comes twice while it's still a song with a lenght of all the other songs.
On the end it's even awful. Only shouting :(
Grade 6/10
05 - De La Vida
This is the first very good but not the best track. The drummer in here does some very nice sh*t and shows that he is really improved in those years.
The chorus is others than the rest because there can be heard more than 1 voice in it, (I'm wondering how they do that live). For the rest it's just standard Ill Nino track, good guitar nice singing, not so nice shouting, not very much bass can be heard.
Grade 8/10
06 - Liberacion Of Our Awakening
This is not a bad song but also not good, but what is it then? It's just very cliché. Christian tries to sound angry but fails in it. The guitar seems to be very important in this song. This track would be a 5 if the refrein wasn't as good as this. The lyrics are better this time and Christian puts them on the right place in the chorus.
Although the chorus is awesome this song doesn't prefent me from skipping.
Grade 7/10
07 - All I Ask For
My favorite song on the CD, not enough?? Oke... My favorite song Ill Nino has made.
This song is more rockish and calmer but still with the energetic feeling which can be found in "What You Deserve" or "Liberacion Of Our Awakening". There is no shouting in it :D which is a great plus and the guitars are pretty different so it can be heard easily that they have 2 guitarists. The couplet is very melodic and emotional and really standouts for the track (although the rest is also awesome). The bridge is very calm and different from the rest of the track but not too different so it's unstructured.
The only reason I don't give a 10 is because I think they can make even better song, at least, I hope.
Grade 9.9/10
08 - Corazon Of Mine
This song is IMO a bit of a filler based track. Except for the guitar in the first seconds this song has nothing original. It's not bad but there are just no things that set this song apart from the rest. The chorus is something that's mentionable because Christian sings about as hard as he can (at least, I think). The bridge is some standard drum and guitar rhythm and Christian shouting and then the chorus comes again and outro and done. I heard this before...
Grade 8.5/10
09 - Everything Beautiful
This is unexplored area for Ill Nino. This track is in 3/4 but they really do some very beautiful sh*t. (better than Linkin Park with their From The Inside).
The chorus is very melodic while Christian is singing for what he has and things that are beautiful. The bridge is a bit the same as the rest of their songs and is not bad but just nothing special. One more thing I want to mention is the last chorus. Their last chorus is double lenght and in the second part the instruments just stop and Christian keeps singing. That is only for a few seconds but is very worth listening to it. Another favorite.
Grade 9.5/10
10 - In This Moment
Just like "All I Ask For" this is more rockish than the rest of the album. The intro is very percussion driving and sounds very spanish. The verse is singing/shouting from Christian but on a calm way and is very short. The chorus however is very long and the lyrics are VERY cheesy. "Feels so wrong, feels so right, feels so wrong, never mind". It seems that they have to learn a lot on lyric writing because this is just too simple for words. The bridge is again like the intro very spanish but this time with a spanish guitar which makes an awesome melody. Then the chorus comes again and after that it just stops.... :( no outro. A bit dissapointing.
This song deserves a high grade but because of the bad lyrics and no outro it will be a bit lower, although it's still high.
Grade 9/10
11 - My Pleasant Torture
This is the ballad of the album. Just like "Numb" (Confession) it's a ballad mixed with some nu-metal energy but it's still softer then the rest.
In the whole song you can easily hear that there are 2 guitars: one electric distortion guitar and one spanish guitar. The drummer takes a step on the background but still sounds very good, the percussionist however does some very nice hits on his instrument. The first guitar solo can be heard in this song, in the bridge the electric guitar makes a pretty simple but still awesome guitar solo. This is another crazy good song.
Grade 9.4/10
12 - Barely Breathing
Interlude? This is the first time Ill Nino made a interlude/filler/intro-intro (or how you want to call it). This track features only guitar and breathing (Christian?) on the background. At the end you can hear a telephone and a guitar which gets louder and louder and louder till the track is over. This track is perfectly linked to "Violent Saint" and I hope they'll make more interludes in the future, especially when they are as good as this one is.
Grade 8/10
13 - Violent Saint
The last song and altough it's not a good song to end it's a really awesome song, this is the only track where I like Christian's shouting. This song is full of energy and hate while it's not heartless or too harsh. The guitars makes up a nice melody in the chorus (one does the riff and other does some higher sh*t). the bridge is also something I want to say something, it's in 3/4 while the rest of the song is in 4/4. This difference sounds a bit out of place but after sometimes listening this it sticks in your head and while your headbanging with this song you automatically change your tempo. Another favorite of this CD.
Grade 9.8/10
Best Top 3:
1.All I Ask For
2.Violent Saint
3.Everything Beautiful
Worst Top 3:
1.My Resurrection
2.Turns To Grey
3.This Is War
Conclusion:
IMO this is the best album they've released till now, with some angry songs but mostly emotional and rockish they've chosen a new path, I hope a more succesful path.
The things they haven't done is a whole song in 3/4 (Everything Beautiful), songs with a rockish vibe (All I Ask For), a very fast-paced song (What You Deserve), an interlude (Barely Breathing). This CD has variety Confession and Revolucion/Revolution didn't know of and is worth the 20 bucks or whatever it cost in your music store.
Pro's:
- The con's they got in the previous albums are improved (more bass, less shouting, better structured, better lyrics)
- The drumming and guitaring has greatly improved
- All I Ask For
Con's:
- The con's they got in the previous albums are still not enough improved (still not enough bass, too many shouting, lyrics are still simple)
- They've chosen for a strange tracklist, the songs aren't on the right place (first songs are the hardest and interlude+violent saint could have get a better place)
- They didn't experiment very much, why don't they make for example a song of 7 minutes.
A 4/5
