From the depths of New Jersey spawns Ill Nino, a fiery six piece whose self-titled demo managed to turn many a head in their local scene, eventually landing them a contract with Roadrunner Records. As suggested by their name, the group possess a decidedly Latin influence, which permeates through their maelstrom of heavy aggro stomp meets new metal rounded out by pummeling bursts of both ethnic and tribal percussion. Much like a collision between Sepultura, Puya, Soulfly and Nonpoint, the band are viciously intense, yet relentlessly dynamic, infusing both melody and brutality into their thundering auditory assaults that come steadily anchored by a wealth of diverse percussive elements.

Shifting from soothing harmonies to enraged guttural roars, band frontman Cristian Machado's warm tonal range plus ferocious growls and screams allow the music to become quite colorful and progressive, touching upon territory that is emphatically honest, while still retaining enough aggression to sear a layer of flesh off anything that stands in its path. The guitar work included is fairly downtuned in a modern metal way, yet it retains a thicker playing style than most bands out there today and also injects some serene ethnic tinged chords and progressions to help bolster the bands sound into a surprisingly diverse beast. The bass playing is also suitably downtuned, coating the tracks with a thick, fearsome wall of lowend that works extremely well with the ever present blasts of looming percussion that skillfully take shape through refined, yet dominating excursions of tribal, Latin and Puerto Rican stylings, propelling the material to tackle and subsequently maul the listener like an enraged grizzly bear.

The most notable evolution "Revolution...Revolución" contains over the bands previous work is a stronger use of melody and much more vibrant production. The songs are solidly written and expansive, able to take the listener through a broad range of emotions with a vigor not seen often in recent times. For the uninitiated, the bands music is definitely ethnically oriented, yet its packaged, modern and heavy enough to be easily digested by those who are currently hooked on the standard modern metal fare. Menacing and emotionally engaging, this album is easily one of the more well rounded debuts to find its way into the heavy music scene in quite some time. Admittedly, it may be too glossy for some in terms of song writing, and its arguable that the ever present rumble of percussion can also be a bit much at times; but overall its hard not to find at least a few intriguing moments after the first few listens. There are the occasional turntable and electronic aspects present, but their sparse inclusion allows the sound exhibited here to become predominantly organic; a refreshing quality in a time where outlandish effects and samples are as common as tattoo's and piercings. In the end, "Revolution...Revolución" is an impressive effort that really manages to stand out from the pack by using the sounds of the bands ethnic lineage in a genuine fashion, rather than a gimmick to merely set them apart; a quality which in such stagnant times seems revolutionary in itself.