On their first two albums, Ill Nino crafted songs out of crushing riffs, surging beats and urgent vocals. They then took those songs and infused them with elements of their Latino heritage, including tribal percussion, flamenco guitars and Spanish lyrics. For their third album, One Nation Underground, the band decided to act on impulse and do what ever felt natural, even if it seemed unconventional. By stretching their boundaries and catering only to themselves, Ill Nino were able to create music that broke new ground and reflected the savagery, rage, disillusionment, beauty and melancholy the band members felt within. “There was nothing holding us back this time," drummer Dave Chavarri says."We wanted to let rip and jam on different Latin rhythms and see where it led us."
While Ill Nino have always been in touch with their Latin roots, on One Nation Underground they blend Hispanic flavors and styles with more fluidity and confidence than ever. Chavarri explains, "We listened to a lot of old salsa and meringue rhythms and beats as well as a lot of Afro Cuban and Santeria rhythms." The result is Ill Nino's most intense, consistent and challenging album yet. "This Is War" begins as a striking mélange of textural chants, propulsive riffs, scouring vocals and a memorable melodic chorus, then shifts into a Latin jam. "Everything Beautiful" starts with tribal instrumentation, then builds through a jagged riff and yearning vocal redolent of Tool.
The fruit of their labor doesn't only showcase a more musically developed Ill Nino, it also debuts vocalist Cristian Machado's new, more prescient lyrical approach. "The easiest thing to do is write about relationships and your family," Machado says, “It's much harder to make observations about the world around you. This record is about society being controlled and divided through all sorts of different influences – both internal and external. It’s about looking at the world around you and realizing that there are things that are going on that are hidden from normal people like you and I, so that's why the record is called One Nation Underground."
Of course, not all of One Nation Underground is so political. "My Resurrection," for example, is about metaphorically washing away the sins of the soul and being born again. “What You Deserve” is about the consequences faced when you think you know it all. Says Machado, “It’s about the circumstances that come with believing we actually have the answers to everything. When we turn knowledge into a possession, and intelligence into a vanity, we leave no room for possibilities.”
Ill Nino formed in 1999, signed to Roadrunner in 2000, and went on to record 2001’s Revolution, Revolucion and 2003’s Confession – growing to sales over 600,000 albums to date. But while Ill Nino are very happy with both of those discs, they don't consider them truly representative, viewing them more as twisty staircases to reach the plateau of One Nation Underground. "We wanted to step up and be more intricate in our writing and more musical with our instruments and articulate in what we say," Chavarri explains. "We all pushed each other and busted our asses on this one. I feel like this is the first real Ill Nino record. This is what Ill Nino should have been since the very beginning."
