Best of
The New Jersey-based Latin metal sextet Ill Nino includes  members Cristian Machado (vocals), Dave Chavarri (drums), Marc Rizzo  (guitars), Jardel Paisante (guitars), Lazaro Pina (bass), and Roger Vasquez  (percussion). Most of its members are of South American descent, resulting  in a type of music that combines crunchy heavy metal with Latin rhythms and  lyrics that alternate between English and Spanish. The idea of Ill Nino  began when former Pro Pain member Chavarri was touring as an interim member  of Max Cavalerra's Soulfly. Once his tour of duty ended and he returned  home, he immediately phoned his friends Rizzo and Machado with the idea of  forming an original band (to quote Chavarri, "The idea is to be as heavy as  possible and as melodic as possible Â— with a Latin twist"), with the other  members enlisting shortly thereafter. The new group enjoyed exposure via  the New York metal college radio station WSOU and began to gig heavily,  opening for the likes of Kittie, Soulfly, Snapcase, plus a co-headlining  set at the March Metal Meltdown festival in New Jersey. Soon after, the  sextet signed to Roadrunner Records, issuing Ill Nino's debut recording,  Revolution/Revolucion in July of 2001. Two years touring to support the  record followed before the reappeared in the record stores with 2003's  Confession. The live DVD Live from the Eye of the Storm followed a year  later with a new album, One Nation Underground, landing in 2005.