A shoegazy metal ballad filled with atmospheric synths and a chilled out tapped guitar line? Sign me up. They do however, offer “ Entombed,” which is among my favorite songs ever. And throughout this album, they offer absolutely no clues that they were ever a radio metal staple. These guys are masters of their scene for a reason. On the other end, “Tempest” starts in a plodding march, before catching fire four minutes in and exploding.Īnd while, admittedly, this is Deftones trick, that doesn’t mean it ever gets stale. “Gauze” likewise starts with a rhythmic heavy metal riff, before opening up into a wall of shoegaze noise in the chorus. Until I reached the chorus, which finds Chino singing one of the most desperate melodies of his career. I was initially turned off by this track. Despite the synths and atmospheric textures that coat the record, this album absolutely rips.Īfter an ambient intro, “Leathers” smashes into an ear-splitting numetal verse. Koi No Yokan is one of the most laid back albums in their catalogue, but it is by no means toothless. But their more recent works expertly meld the two extremes of their work into cohesive songs. Their earlier albums spent their track lists doing one or the other, sometimes in jarring juxtapositions. Since White Pony (next on my purchase list), all of their offer the same blend of (surprisingly enjoyable) numetal aggression with blissed out shoegaze atmospheres. Record #397: Deftones – Koi No Yokan (2011)īut the difficult thing with a band like Deftones is that their material is so consistent that it’s hard to quantify their albums in any sort of way. Which is good news, because I can’t stand rap rock anymore. While songs like “Freak on a Leash” and “Nookie” sound like embarrassing time capsules, most of White Pony sounds practically modern. But even these songs haven’t aged as poorly as most of their contemporaries. Some of the riffs are still drenched in hip-hop swagger-”Elite” in particular. While there are no raps on this record, the band hadn’t completely shed their nu-metal skin. “Teenager” even had electronic drums and acoustic guitars! “Rx Queen,” “Teenager,” and the first half of “Pink Maggit” saw them using a quieter palette than ever before. Songs like “Digital Bath,” “Knife Prty,” and the eternal “Change (In the House of Flies)” made great use out of a quite-loud dynamic that became the blueprint for many of the group’s best songs. This change was in large part due to the group’s new emphasis on atmosphere and melody.

That trajectory is thanks to White Pony, the record that eschewed the nu-metal of their peers and becoming one of the best alt-metal bands in the business. Listening to the melodic, shoegaze-influenced alternative metal of Koi No Yokan or Gore, there’s very little to suggest that Deftones was ever a rap-metal group.

List of all deftones albums