A few former members of Ill Niño, including vocalist Cristian Machado and guitarists Ahrue “Luster” Ilustre and Diego Verduzco have launched a new band called Lions At The Gate. The group is rounded out by bassist Stephen Brewer, and drummer Fern Lemus.
Ilustre told Rock Talks:
“I can’t even explain how happy I am with how this came out. It sounds, in my opinion, better than anything that Cristian and I have ever done together, and that includes all the Ill Niño records that we’ve done together.”
Regarding the band’s sound he said:
“It’s a very polished sound, similar to… I don’t wanna say it sounds like ‘Confession‘, but there’s a lot of singing on it, there’s a lot of production. But at the same time, there’s heaviness to it. But the songs are better than anything we’ve written. And the crazy thing was the process of writing ’em was way easier than it has ever been for us. Usually an Ill Niño record would take us three to six months to finish. We finished this record in 20 days, and we believe it sounds better than anything we’ve ever done in the past.”
The band’s first single, “Not Even Human” is expected this Friday, June 04th. The teaser can be found below. The band worked with producer Kyle Odell on the album.
The band is formed after a contentious legal battle within the Ill Niño camp, which saw Machado, Ilustre, and Verduzco reaching a settlement with Dave Chavarri and Lazaro Pina regarding the trademark.
