Ill Niño (stylized as ill niño) is an American metal band formed in Union City, New Jersey, in 1998 by drummer and percussionist Dave Chavarri. They have released seven studio albums, two EPs and one compilation album, totaling in over 1.3 million worldwide album sales.

Ill Niño was formed as El Niño by former Pro-Pain drummer David "Dave" Chavarri in May 1998. He enlisted Merauder vocalist Jorge Rosado, guitarist Daniel Gomez and bassist Christian Machado and took on the position of drummer and percussionist himself. With this line-up, the band released a self-titled EP. Gomez left the band soon after the EP's release, with a variety of guitarists filling in his spot. Among them were future fulltime member Marc Rizzo, Scott Roberts of Biohazard and Derek Sykes of Demolition Hammer. Sykes also appears on the compilation album Métalo, released by Grita! Records in June 1999. By this time, the band had already renamed to Ill Niño. However, just a month later, the band was put on hold due to Chavarri taking over Roy Mayorga's duties in Soulfly on the Bring Da Shit Tour. After two months on tour, Chavarri decided to reform his old band, now with Machado on lead vocals and joined by guitarists Marc Rizzo and Jardel Paisante, bassist Lazaro Pina and Roger Vasquez on additional percussions. In this formation, the band's first release was a self-titled EP in 2000. They received exposure via the New Jersey metal college radio station WSOU and opened for bands like Kittie, Soulfly and Snapcase. Subsequently, the band was signed by Roadrunner Records.

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