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Ill Niņo "Confession" CD
[Roadrunner]
Nu-metal? Damn right it is. And I sort of like this band. Laugh all you want, I don't give a fuck. This isn't the kind of stuff I listen to on a regular basis by any means, but good songs are good songs, and I enjoy what I enjoy. I actually really liked this band's last record, which surprised the shit out of me as much as anyone else, but even though this one's not as god, I can still listen to it and find some of it to be pretty good. It's all pretty standard: Heavy grooves, clean passages and a good sense of melody, screaming vocals and singing vocals, short songs that cut to the chase, all that jazz. And of course they drop a bunch of Spanish influences into the mix with some additional percussion, really slick acoustic guitars, etc. That's not exactly an innovative move at this point, but it does give them a different sound from all of these other bands, and they really make it work in their favor. Fuck it. They have some great vocal harmonies and catchy choruses, and I can deal with it. Granted this stuff's a little more generic and formulaic than the last record, so there are a handful of songs that suck or just don't really need to jack up the disc's total running time. The video for "How Can I Live" is on the CD-Rom portion of the disc, but you can see that video on MTV so I don't really understand why it's on the CD. It's nothing special. I don't see why they included the Spanish version of that song as a bonus track either, but hey... their call. As for the production, I think it's great. I'm sure they had a ridiculous budget, so that about says it. It's Roadrunner, so... crunch those numbers. I don't have any gripes. It's dense but clear, the mix is good, the tones work fine, the layering doesn't get overly cluttered, etc. I think the layout looks slick. The band photos are kind of cheesy and posed and all that, but the other photographs, the way the text and textures are arranged, and the color scheme all look really cool. As does the black on black printing on the CD face. The lyrics are pretty terrible, it's all really dumbed down, basic personal junk, I can't really get into it, but whatever. That's actually the biggest problem with this record, because the vocals are more discernable, and some of the lyrics are so fucking stupid and simplistic that it actually makes a few of the songs hard to listen to. Shit happens. Well, I've embarrassed myself enough. I think this is a decent record. The last one was definitely better, though. (6/10)
Running time - 47:13, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: This Time's for Real, When it Cuts, Letting Go]
Roadrunner Records - http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com
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