Since they rocketed on to national radio in 1995 with their debut album Adrenaline, Deftones have proved to be one of the most professional, and talented bands to have emerged in recent years.

With classic Metal gone (Metallica with short hair, Manowar sadly out of most peoples minds) a few bands stepped up to fill the shoes. Korn, who soon became naught but simplicity and growly venting, and Limp Bizkit who, thankfully, has slipped into obscurity, or at least disrespect, and Deftones. People were curious as to just how long this "nu-metal" would last, and as the dust settled, it became clear that Deftones would be the survivors of the genre.

The reasons are as follows. The expert playing of the musicians comes across as head-banging fun at the worst, and pure perfection at the best. They are all about the mood, and 8 15 minute long songs on an album with the same growly guitars and 7 minute guitar solos doesn't cut it. Chino Moreno's voice has gone from good to perhaps the third greatest voice in Modern Rock (I'm putting him behind Chris Cornell and Maynard James Keenan). His lyrics are cryptic, and are to be left to the interpretor. He thankfully skips insipid white rapping, excessive complaints about his home life, and roaring about Gods of Metal. Melodrama doesn't suit him, emotion does.

All in all, its Deftones who have been the ones to breathe life into a genre that tires itself out ever two years or so, and they'll be the ones to continue to do it.

For their fourth and latest effort, Deftones went eponymous as to the title of their album. This of course means the album is self-titled. After impressive sales and reviews for their last three albums, Deftones was rather anticipated. That anticipation, mixed with a huge hit of a first single (Minerva) put Deftones latest album at an astounding second on the Billboard chart, just behind Staind’s 14 Shades Of Grey. The album spent the next ten weeks on the charts, and has currently sold roughly 600,000 copies, awarding Gold Status.
The music in Deftones is yet another leap away from their past, as their sound continues to evolve. This time their instruments don’t scream, bite, or brood (Adrenaline, Around The Fur, White Pony) and instead roar and club you over the head. From the opening Hexagram, it is very apparent that the boys mean business, as this is easily the hardest song of their career. After shocking and confusing you with the intensity of the wonderful opener, Deftones begin the real show. The band’s sound is smoother than ever before, and their songs have never been tighter. Each song is set up by some extremely appropriate guitars, from both Chino and Steff, except of course, for Anniversary Of An Uninteresting Event, the 10th song on the album, which is beautifully done by Chino’s vocals and Delgado’s piano. However, this time around the songs come off as just that, song, as opposed to sung poetry forming a window of meaning in your mind. This is probably due to the tightness of the writing this time around.
As for Chino, he’s better than ever. This time around his voice has probably peaked. He hits every note he attempts with skilled accuracy, and his lyrics are wonderful as well, from the heavily-veiled discourse on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict in Hexagram; the romantic resignation of Good Morning, Beautiful, Moana, and Anniversary; the plain truths spoken about his subjects in Battle Axe, Deathblow, When Girls Telephone Boys, and Bloody Cape; and the off-the wall-techno-junkie Lucky you (which can be heard on the Matrix Revolutions soundtrack) is in a category all by itself. However, his lyrics are just that, lyrics. They aren’t insights into one of the deepest and most intriguing minds in rock today, as was displayed in 2000.
While it isn’t quite up to par with White Pony, it is a great album, in itself and doubles as a wonderful companion piece to Around The Fur. They’ve thrown things up again, and this should warrant a listen from all fans of both band and genre.


4/5 stars.

It’s 2000, and Deftones are one of the most respected and established rock bands in the country. They’ve had 2 Gold Albums, and a handful of huge hits. 2000 was the year they released White Pony, at it shot off like a rocket. Scoring a trio of gargantuan hits (Change, Back To School, and Digital Bath) it became their highest selling album yet, selling roughly 1,090,000 copies, awarding the album Platinum status.
As always we start with the music. You know how I said they completely changed their style from first album to second? Well, they’ve done it again. They’ve now thrown all their biting, clanging guitars to the wind for one thing and one thing only. Mood. They’ve shaped their sound in a swirling concoction of your most darkly romantic emotions. The music in every song sets mood and stirs all the emotion you’ll ever need to feel, without putting a face to the feeling. The music is haunting, beautiful, sorrowful all at once, and to put one word to it, Beautiful. There is no wrong done here, only a pinnacle of emotion.
As stated, the music builds all the impact needed for…well…anything. The thing that gives the songs their face, are Chino Moreno’s lyrics. Each piece of his soul Chino lays down is constructed so perfectly, it gives a first-person-view into the well of the song. Each song delivers a short story you alone are privy to, and is so emotional in its cryptic delivery Chuck Palahniuk comes to mind. His stream-of-consciousness style is poetry to Palahniuk’s prose. Chino’s voice is just as brilliant. His voice is lifting, soothing, adding a sympathetic romance to songs of disturbing subject matter like Digital Bath, RX Queen, and Knife Party, even a rare discourse into straightforward writing (Back To School) comes off as quite possibly the best rap-metal song ever recorded (and it’s the only Rap-Metal song on the album, mind you). Chino’s voice has gone through such a fantastic voyage. I really look forward to what paths he takes in the future, if it’s even POSSIBLE to get any better.
What we have here is a masterpiece. A masterpiece of all its parts, made even harder with the introduction of Frank Delgado on Turntables, making Deftones a Quintet, and Chino picking up the guitar. White Pony is a masterpiece as an album, as a collection of stories, and as stream-of-consciousness poetry.

5/5 stars.

In 1995, a little known Sacramento-based band called Deftones released an album called Adrenaline on Madonna’s Maverick record label. Despite receiving almost no fanfare it racked up impressive sales of 200,000 copies by word of mouth alone (it has since sold roughly 580,000, carrying it Gold Status), so of course their next album was eagerly anticipated.
In 1997, Around The Fur dropped. The album (selling roughly 740,000 copies, awarding it Gold Status) marked quite a change in their debut album’s rap-metal stylings.
The music in Around The Fur is a complete turnaround from what was heard in Adrenaline. Instead of a fully detailed head-banging scream-fest, they’ve moved on to a dynamic assault of ambient sounds comparable to an album version of a David Lynch film. Altogether it proves a very moving experience. Also adding to the experience is that almost all the songs are connected to each other end-to-end, and the music seems deeply intertwined with Chino Moreno’s vocals.
Keeping along with Stef, Chi, and Abe, Chino has completely turned his back on the style embraced by Adrenaline, and it’s a damn fine thing he did. He writes as the same style as Adrenaline, only it’s progressed to Chino 2.0. His lyrics go from truthful (Lotion) to disturbing (MX, Lhabia), to inspiring (Headup) to hauntingly beautiful (Mascara, Be Quiet And Drive). Along with his bigger lyrical range, his vocal range has improved drastically as well. His voice is still far from perfect, and a good word to describe would be rough, but this time around he has a lot more impressive moments (Mascara, Be Quiet And Drive, and Dai The Flu are especially powerful).
In final, while this is a completely different album, fans of Adrenaline, you will still like it. And with this new sound, even those who disliked Adrenaline have no excuse not to listen. Hopefully, with the improvements in all areas, this will put their view of Deftones in a much more positive light.


4.5/5 stars

Deftones formed in Sacramento California in the late 80's, and not long after were signed to Madonna's Maverick records. Adrenaline is the result of their labor.

Adrenaline is a wonderfully solid album, managing to skirt the line between metal and ambience perfectly. Stephen Carpenter, Chi Cheng, and Abe Cunningham are expert writers and musicians, and their efforts surely show. Between the head-banging attack of songs like Minus Blindfold and Nosebleed, to the foreboding sprawl of songs like One Weak and Birthmark, there really is a sense of...compele-ness, for lack of a better word. They also display their talents at more accessible writing, using catchier (yet still satisfyingly heavy) riffs in songs like Root and, most especially, 7 Words.

Lyrically this is the introduction of now familiar territory for Deftones fans, Chino Moreno obviously writing a song of great meaning to him, but hiding that meaning so thoroughly and adeptly that you truly have no choice but to come up with your own interpretations, while he CAN write straightforwardly (Answers is a good example of that), he greatly prefers the icy cryptic feel of the lyrics to Bored, Fireal, and Birthmark. However, as far as Chino's voice goes, this is NOT his best effort. He stays along the same lines in all his songs, whether he's singing or doing the Deftones signature whacked-out rap. Only his throaty, visceral growls and a small departure about 2 and a half minutes into 7 words display something other than the sameness that enfolds the rest of the album. However, it is truly NOT a huge problem, and hardly detracts from the album.

In solid, this isn't Deftones' best album, but wonderfully solid debut that marks a career that thankfully only goes up in talent.