Obviously he was going through something, and his head just wasn’t in it.

Later towards the end of the process, he took me aside and said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry that I wasn’t really there mentally.’ Though he was there, physically, he was not showing much interest in jamming along with it. “One of the biggest things that happened was Stephen sort of checked out for a lot of the writing process. Some of the stuff’s not comfortable for me to listen to.” It’s probably one of our only records that when I listen to it, I get a weird feeling. “I was a little out of my mind, with drugs or whatever, and just sort of in a dark place. But yeah, I hear our youth in that record.” There are some moments in there that are pretty special. Sometimes there’s beauty in that, when you don’t know what you’re doing.

My confidence as a vocalist, it hadn’t really blossomed at all. Always one step ahead, that bit smarter, sharper, more daring than even their closest peers, they rapidly outgrew the nu-metal boom from which they emerged, changed the game with third album White Pony and have proceeded to drive towards the horizon ever since.Īlthough the core dynamic between vocalist Chino Moreno’s art-rock fixation and guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s far heavier metal influence remains key, the collective has always been crucial, with Abe Cunningham’s pounding drums propelling the vision, electronic-specialist Frank Delgado layering it up since his arrival in 1998, while tragically-departed bassist Chi Cheng and his successor Sergio Vega add a warmth and fullness of body.Ĭhoosing just 20 songs to represent a catalogue this complex and universally rewarding feels almost reductive, but we’ve had a crack at distilling down what has made Deftones’ journey so fascinating nonetheless.“It’s probably one of my least favorite records of ours. Forming in Sacramento, California all the way back in 1988, and releasing eight outstanding LPs over the last 25 years ( with number nine on its way), Deftones have indelibly shaped the alternative metal genre while remaining a band apart.

Deftones albums songs