ILL NINO will be releasing their new record, Enigma (Cement Shoes Records), on July 17th. Bassist Laz told Morley Seaver of Caustictruths.com that the band is grateful to Roadrunner Records but glad to have moved on to their new label, Cement Shoes Records.

Here’s a piece of the conversation:

Caustic Truths!: Considering Mike Gitter was the one that signed you guys and was so into you, what is your impression on what happened with Roadrunner?

Ill Nino: Well, you know, I mean, what was going on with Roadrunner which is unfortunate. I’m very grateful to have been on Roadrunner and what they’ve done for us in the past. You know, they jumpstarted a career for us, worldwide, international career. Mike Gitter is still a friend of the band. He was actually here in L.A. and he came over to the studio. You know he just couldn’t get away. Because we’re still very close as friends and he’s still very much into the band so he actually came down to the studio here in L.A. (laughs) And we got to spend some time with him, and played him some of the material, which he expressed he was so proud of. I mean he wants the best for us. After all he was responsible for discovering the band. So he’d like to see the band continue to do what it does and maybe even reach higher ground. And it got to the point at Roadrunner where, you know, not so much A&R; but the higher-ups were very content with the career as it was. And we needed to move forward. We didn’t want to stay the same. We wanted to continue growing. They weren’t really going to commit to our growth. They were very content with us selling what we sell, and doing what we do. There was a lot of change going on at Roadrunner, and we knew they were coming in advance. And it was just the opportunity that we could both part on good terms. As you know Roadrunner is now owned by Universal, which was completely the end of Roadrunner as we know it. Which is a shame because is there going to be another label that’s going to replace Roadrunner? Cuz once it goes corporate, you know what I mean? We can have wishful thinking and pretend like Roadrunner is still going to put that type of record. But when you go to a major label like Universal you might not get that. They might not be content with an underground metal band career. And that’s unfortunate because there’s going to be a lot of bands that are going to be looking for a label soon due to this whole change and transition. I mean, I hope a lot of these bands, hope this kind of music just keeps going and there’ll be another outlet that can replace it. And maybe Universal can stick to the tradition of what made Roadrunner what it is today. It was definitely us, we saw it coming and if we had stayed there we were going to get stuck in limbo somewhere. We’re a working band. We like to keep moving forward. We don’t want to wait around. I’m very happy with where I’m at right now. We are making the kind of record we want to make. Roadrunner would normally want us to produce certain kinds of records. And we always thought we were a little bit more than that, you know? We should have had the right to express ourselves a little bit differently if we chose to. But you know, they want a certain record and that’s what they expect of us, and that’s the type of record that we’d deliver. Not to take away from any other record. I love everything we’ve done in the past. That’s just the way it was. But a lot of times we had to compromise for the label."

You can read the whole article here.