Noise Complaint

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #191*. If you like what you see, grab the*magazine* for less than ten dollars, or*subscribe* and get all future magazines for half price.*

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Ruminations on the power of the riff.

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Few metal bands have had a career trajectory that’s as weird and yet predictable as the Deftones. They’ve been around long enough that it’s easy to forget exactly how weird they are, and how unique their path has been to get to where they are now. They signed with Maverick Records in 1994 after catching the attention of Madonna (yes, that Madonna) with their two-song demo tape. Their associated side projects include members of everyone from Isis to Cypress Hill. Their lineup includes a DJ (Frank Delgado) but their albums feature almost no scratching or anything resembling the conventional role of a DJ in a band setting.

Given the fact that they emerged just as nu-metal was entering mainstream consciousness, it’s understandable that they’ve commonly been associated with that particular movement. It’s equally understandable why the band never embraced that label; even on their earliest records (1995’s Adrenaline and 1997’s Around the Fur), they were experimenting with rhythms and textures that suggested they had a future outside of metal’s suffocating confines. By the time they released their breakthrough third record White Pony in 2000, they somehow managed to hit escape velocity out of the underground by mixing metal with shoegaze and dreampop. It was a move no one saw coming at the time and it made them one of the world’s biggest rock bands.

Even if you’re familiar with the Deftones and their history, it’s worth taking a moment to think about how nothing about the band or their origin story should work. The push-and-pull creative dynamic between frontman Chino Moreno and guitarist Stephen Carpenter is well documented, with the former bringing more melodic and textured influences into the fold, and the latter an unrepentant metalhead. Some people might say you can’t mix influences like, say, The Smiths and The Cure with Meshuggah and Seputura, and they’d be wrong. If that mix doesn’t sound controversial to you at all, you have the Deftones to thank for breaking down those barriers.

When the first notes on the band’s recently released 10th album private music’s opening track “my mind is a mountain” ring out, it can be difficult to tell whether this is a Deftones album, or something from one of the vast number of modern metalcore and shoegaze bands who have copped their style (The World Is a Beautiful Place’s recently released fifth album Dreams of Being Dust is one example, but the fact we can credibly call that band metalcore now is worth its own column). Yet when Moreno’s unmistakable voice comes in, there is no longer any question who’s coming out of the speakers. Everyone has been influenced by the Deftones, but no one sounds exactly like the Deftones.

There are few (if any) other metal bands capable of integrating influences as wide-ranging as Meshuggah and Depeche Mode into a singular sound that belongs to exactly no one else in quite the way the Deftones have. Yet they are certainly no longer the only prominent heavy band to have heard Lovelessand asked what would happen if you merged shoegaze textures with guttural detuned riffs. Where the Deftones stand out and distinguish themselves from their imitators is how well they hide the seams between their influences; rather than consciously stitching together trending sounds, their influences are synthesized into one collective voice.

However you categorize them, the Deftones have always seemed to exist in their own space. The Deftones haven’t been widely underrated since Clinton’s second term in office and their post-White Pony output has generally been critically well-received. Unlike most other mainstream metal bands that emerged around the turn of the century, the Deftones also never slid into being fodder for nostalgia, because they’ve never stopped recording, touring and growing their fanbase.

Yet they have also always felt like a band that existed in their own bubble, somehow managing to get a free pass from serious fans and critics for being “nu-metal” (though whether they’re actually nu-metal is a discussion best left for Reddit). Even on creative high points like 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist, 2012’s Koi No Yokan, and 2016’s Gore, it has always felt like the Deftones were vibing on a wavelength detached from anything that was trending. They rode a wave with a genre they never fully fit into, then continued honing their craft even when most of their peers faded away or hit the state fair tour circuit.

With private music, it feels as though the world has finally caught up with where they’re heads are at. Nu-metal isn’t the derogatory term it used to be, shoegaze is undergoing a renaissance, and the cultural climate has been primed to embrace music that’s aggressive but smart. If this record were released under a different band name, it’d be hailed as one of the most exciting new releases from some young up-and-coming band. It’s a remarkable achievement that a band with members now in their 50s can pull this off convincingly, and seemingly without effort.

Of course, private music sounds exactly the way it would have sounded regardless of whatever else has been happening around the band’s orbit. What’s perceived as effortlessness is really just comfort in their own skin, a level of confidence that can’t be faked. private music is a case study in the value of staying true to your own vision. 10 albums into their career, the world has finally caught up to what Madonna knew all along: the Deftones are the wave of the future.

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Ben Sailer is a writer based out of Fargo, ND, where he survives the cold with his wife and dog. His writing also regularly appears inNew Noise Magazine*.*