Ill Nino review

Download Festival 2004

By Guy Powell | Published: Thu 10th Jun 2004

Download Festival 2004

Saturday 5th to Sunday 6th June 2004
Donington Park, Leics, England MAP
£80 for both days, camping £15 extra, camping upgrade

The sun has decided to beam down on Donington. The crowd have already filled the main stage and Turbo Negero have gone missing meaning that Ill Nino are here early and ready to give everyone a Sunday morning wake up call.

In a matter of minutes the whole crowd is under the spell of Ill Nino – with every person between the barrier and the sound booth throwing their arms in to the air in unison, whenever the band ask of it.

The set is nothing short of absolutely fantastic with drumming that has most likely knocked down East Midlands airport by now. This is without evening mentioning vocals that flit from harmonically pleasing and calm to crowd pleasing and powerfully screaming.

Ill Nino have the stage presence that a lot of the bands playing this weekend can only dream of. The whole crowd have their attention pinned on the main stage and have no plans on going anywhere else until this set has finished – even if they were expecting a different band.

If you needed to know that today is Metallica day, you’ve found out. As a T-shirt next to me says, “Pure Fucking Metal”.
review by: Guy Powell


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