One Nation Underground by Ill Nino

One Nation Underground, Ill Niño's third album, landed in 2005 as the Union City, New Jersey crew's last studio record for Roadrunner, and it's their Latin-flavored metal at its most stubborn. Eddie Wohl produced, and the formula holds: heavy riffs that hit like a slammed door and choruses that swing from snarl to soaring melody. Drummer Dave Chavarri, who founded the band in 1998, keeps it all on a tight leash, and "What You Deserve" is the kind of chest-thumper built for the pit.

It was also the last album with guitarist Jardel Paisante. Commercially the tide had turned: it opened at 101 on the Billboard 200 with close to 11,000 sold in its first week and ended up around 210,000, well short of the near-gold Confession.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.