By Genre: Hard Rock, Alternative Metal
Favorite Tracks: ‘my mind is a mountain,” “eclysis,” “departing the body”
The Deftones might be the best band to ever make rock or metal music, if only because they’re never quite the right fit for any genre label. The band is intrinsically dynamic, with each song unfolding like a poem over the course of alternating heaviness and spry, sky-gazing passages that conjure images of sparkling salt in crested ocean waves, or the sun setting on some vista, breaking up the shadow of a long day. In Chino Moreno, the most dynamic vocalist to maybe ever be in a traditional band, they have someone who can be a ‘90s alt-rock frontman, a hardcore stalwart, a spoken-word architect, and a Morrissey-esque pop singer, all within the span of seconds. There is no perfect language to describe the band, now in its 37th year, except to say that they seem to make music that transcends reality, and just like Missy Elliot, are perhaps waiting for music and history to catch up to them. On their 10th studio album, PRIVATE MUSIC, they create more space than usual for listeners to consider their time-bending abilities.
It’s fascinating how iconic era-specific production sounds become, and how they come to be associated with a band even as the technology updates. In the case of Deftones, their first two releases are forged in an era of alt-rock that gave rise to Failure and Velocity Girl, with albums from each being defined by an inability to smooth out a sludgy sound in the low-end and an issue with the general mixing levels that often made vocals sound compressed, like they’re stuck in an envelope-filter. Most bands that could have been promising were leveled by this approach to production, but some, like Deftones, were able to still conjure magic within it. As much as studios and producers have fundamentally changed since the early-to-mid ‘90s, the band still relies on some idea of the constraints needed to work around these issues. But in 2025, that means considering a sound that can make room for abundance and generosity while still being the tight poetry that’s come to define them.
On the opener, “my mind is a mountain,” that classic Deftones wall of sound is still omnipresent and integral, but because studio sound has gotten so good, Chino Moreno is able to be mixed at essentially the same level and not lose nuance. If the band can be imagined as a swirling storm around Moreno, this is as close to perfect as the sound gets, with the doom metal chugging being offset by the sparkle of the higher arpeggiated passages, and Moreno’s every squawk, yell, and sigh adding context to the beautiful beast of sound. To listen to the track, it doesn’t sound like just a song, but, as only this band is able to do, a sea cliff sustaining the echoes and reverberations of crashing waves and erosion.
This approach to production allows the band to also reach new heights, such as on the third track, ‘“eclysis,” which features Moreno doing his best bat-out-of-Hell, ‘80s metal vocal, conjuring a sinister idea of Ozzy Osbourne (RIP) at his very best. Curiously, the song succeeds not because it is trying to be in the vein of those classic tracks, but rather because the vocal marries so well with an almost industrial rhythm and guitar bounce that sounds akin to a mechanical arm whirring to life while truly awesome riffage soundtracks the work. These icy and warm tones are played so precisely that this is the song to recommend for anyone who wants to truly hear guitar practice and talent. Every Deftones album has at least one argument for Stephen Carpenter as the GOAT of modern rock music, and this is most certainly the one. The track also is a beautiful example of how generous the band is to one another, as Abe Cunningham, Fred Sablan, and Frank Delgado also display world-class talent in a song that could easily be eaten up by Moreno and Carpenter.
Songs like “infinite source,” “souvenir,” and “i think about you all the time” return the listener to the era of their self-titled album, but rather than be washed-out by the sound, the band is able to return to the calm, light-seeking explosiveness of those tracks and find a warmth and new vulnerability. Indeed, on “i think about you all the time,” Moreno sounds almost naked, recorded with such vulnerability as to sound like he’s pouring out of the speaker, Terminator-style, while delivering the cooing romance of Prince and Robert Smith that shaped him; this ability to truly capture the band as they’re meant to be heard allow “milk of the madonna” and “cut hands” to sound like victory laps, as, like “my mind is a mountain,” they rise up to resemble physical structures in the mind of the listener, the band majestically building to something deeper in each.
By the time the album closes with ‘’departing the body,” the band achieves something it’s struggled with over the last few albums, which is an ability to provide confidence and light to the listener. The death of bassist Chi Cheng saw the band retreat inward a bit, slowly moving back to a position of positivity and joy with each release since. However, with the gorgeous echoed vocals being broadcast across the heavy riffage that is the band’s trademark move, it finally sounds like a return to form from a group that has never put out a bad album, but had forgotten that they are the best in the genre. The track doesn’t come to feel like a cliff or mountain, but rather a return to a vista view, Moreno’s soft voice finding its way to a listener across the air.
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