


Sessions dragged on, the band took a hiatus, and they re-recorded most of the album once they returned from it. Chino Moreno was addicted to drugs and getting divorced, which might have been good for inspiration, but not particularly for the actual making of the album.

First single “Minerva” is the high point of an album that doesn’t have that many solid songs on it, and as the album goes on, it gets bogged down by it’s own dreariness.īy 2006, Deftones were in a rut creatively as far as personally. And while there’s nothing particularly wrong with it, it finds them treading the same ground of shoegaze, metal and ’80s alt-rock they’d been on White Pony, but with diminishing results. Have thoughts on whether we’re right or wrong? Let us know in the comment section.Īfter the critical and commercial success of White Pony showed that the band could deviate from the nu-metal sound that they’d effectively distanced themselves from, Deftones returned three years later with their self-titled album. With a Summer tour set to kick off in August, we thought we’d revisit the band’s catalogue and rank it (rank it! rank it! rank it!). The addition of turntablist/sampler Frank Delgado also helped set them apart from their peers. However, the combination of Chino Moreno’s unique and expressive vocals taking a cue from The Cure’s Robert Smith and Morrissey, the rhythm section of Chi Cheng and Abe Cunningham that was influenced by bands like Bad Brains, and Stephen Carpenter’s love of metal, they have a sound that transcended and outlasted nu-metal. Having released the album as nu-metal was at it’s height, they could have continued to mine those waters. Since their debut album Adrenaline in 1995, the band have staked out a unique territory in heavy music. That also means that with having had two months to digest the album, we can comfortably rank it alongside the rest of their catalog. It’s been over two months since Deftones released their eighth album, Gore, and it’s #2 debut gave the band their best chart week since 2003.
