My first encounter with Ill Niño had been but a week earlier, and so I had not had any time to delve deeper into their music, but was certainly willing to give another concert a go anyway.

It all began with Diego Verduzco (guitar) throwing a beercan out into the crowd as he came on stage, something which was evidently highly appreciated by the thirsty Brutal Assault audience.
After this the party started, and the band and crowd competed about who was the wildest one at the show, with both teams putting up one heck of a fight! This was definitely among the top acts of this year’s festival when it came to liveliness in the performance, and it was clear to see how it rubbed off on all who had come to witness the Latin hardcore metal band from New Jersey.
But it was never good enough;

“Not bad but you better wake the fuck up!”

shouted singer Cristian Machado as I was standing looking out over the largest and fiercest moshpit I had seen through the entire festival up to this point (and beyond to be honest).

Few pauses for breath were left in the set, so it was nice to hear one of them spent on Machado showing love and gratitude both for the crowd, and for some of his fellow bands present as well. I was a bit surprised by some of the names he picked though, but judge for yourself; Agnostic Front, Napalm Death and Cannibal Corpse!

If my feelings from Wacken had been a bit mixed for the band, they much more clearly in the positive end of the rope this time, but the fact that I still didn’t know any of the songs held back that one final piece of the puzzle to make possible perfection complete. Maybe next time…