Album Review: Deftones - 'private music'
Deftones private music means one thing. The Kings are home.
Deftones have blessed the world with a new album (Private Music releasing on Aug 22nd) for us all to experience for the first time since Ohms in 2020, and my goodness, are we in for a ride. This album is the result of a lifetime’s effort and shows just how far this band has come in all aspects of songwriting. Everything has evolved while remaining true to its roots, creating a spine-tingling and musically flawless record. Every element stands out, from the beauty and precision of the guitar sections cultivated to the ethereal and striking vocals of Chino Moreno and the brute force of the rhythm section. Deftones have always been a titan within their genre and have rewritten their rule book more times than I can count, but their ongoing evolution has culminated in something truly standout and special. This is a no-skipping album from start to finish, taking you on a journey through time alongside the band. This is a musically perfect album.
The intro track ”My Mind Is A Mountain“ is a hard open that immediately grabs both ankles and drags you straight into the abyss. This song opens with heavy chords and modern influence, pulling from bands that have most likely grown up on Deftones, like Super Heaven. The consistent work and progress are felt immediately through the opening minute as everything this band is used to has been fine-tuned and become razor sharp; they use this magnificent blend of chaos to carry a fresh vocal sound from Chino. While Chino is usually raspy and relentless, he takes a cleaner approach with most tracks on this album to allow for the production quality of the band to really shine through, and I don’t think it could have worked any better. The standout on this song to me was the drum tracking and production level. Abe has always been a master at his craft, and there are few drummers who can make halftime as aggressive and punchy as he can, but something happened in that studio that created a monster of sound. Beautiful pounding snare and kick hits coupled with a poetic car crash of a symbol section make for a riotous beat to carry this opener, and with that were off to the races.
The rest if the album continues to build on the opener with masterful mixing, tracks like “Locked Club” and “cXz” have enormous sounds and show that in the interim of the band taking time off and playing a minimal amount of shows, every artist has continued to hone their craft and produce something they know they will be proud of. These tracks take the lifeblood and the essence of Deftones and break the knob by trying to crank it past 11; this new sound is so welcoming yet so brutish and raw; the guitars are consistently exploring new paths to create a fusion of sound and fury. The quality of this album is second to none, and the deep cuts really do make it. It’s very rare nowadays that you get an album that can consume you, but I believe Deftones have done exactly that.
The track that stood out to me the most was, without a doubt, “Infinite Source”. It comes crashing through the speakers with immediate experimental harmonics and gorgeous chord progression, building a universe around itself for you to grasp and mosh to in your mind. Chino uses his most famous moan style vocals on this track, a callback to a simpler time that helps the audience reminisce the days of skinny jeans and white pony, this helps the band showcase that evolution yet again by taking a sound the listener knows and loves and still managing to create something new and fresh with it every single time, this is a standout track for chinos vocals as he uses the patented reverb and echo that adds important layering to the way the song flows. The guitar on this track is also probably the best on the album as the band experiment with some hardcore and piercing harmonics in the verse portions before breaking into a cluster of spine snapping chords, this song is Deftones, this is everything they have worked for and it shows just how far the band has come since Adrenaline and really informs you on how the will continue to keep thriving in the years to come.
The singles that were released alongside this album also made waves upon release. With the aforementioned “My Mind is A Mountain” and the incredible “Milk of The Madonna” releasing earlier this month in order to create buzz for the album and they did just that, “Milk of the Madonna” makes it very evident as to why it was picked for a single, its the perfect combination of the bands history. It takes the tenacity of the drumming and bass lines on “Adrenaline”, combines it with the beauty and weight of the guitars on “White Pony”, and wraps it all together tightly with a vocal style slightly reminiscent of “Around the Fur”. This creates the perfect flow for the band to create the art they have for years and prove to us they aren’t going anywhere soon, while creating an insatiable desire for more within their audience.
This album was a surreal experience; it is Deftones at their peak, and they continue to create and build upon this peak until they ascend. They’ve done an excellent job with this album, and it will be a very strong contender for album of the year. The band has continued their emphatic and lively performances since the release of their last album and does not plan on slowing down, with a UK tour of this album being announced for February next year. I cannot wait to see this masterpiece come to life with endless energy on stage. This album is perfect, and I cannot wait to see what comes next; if it's anywhere near as good as this project, I’m going to need my blood pressure checked!
Words by Josh Pook
