Deftones - Diamond Eyes

Chino definitely doesn't sound bad on this album, besides the drum sounds the biggest thing I'm not quite stoked about is Stephens Meshuggah wannabe riffs... and I love meshuggah but Stephen's original guitar style is better for Deftones.

.... I think the leak (that someone said was record from a net stream) might have something to do with the drum sound. I was watching one of those cover art reveal clips and the drums sounded a lil bit better than the leak... maybe?? kinda drunk so this is not an opinion to believe in.

I'm really enjoying this new album. I have been a die hard 'tones fan since just after ATF came out. I was overall disappointed with their last album, probably their weakest imo, but after listening to the new one about 10 - 15 times I can say that this is arguable their strongest material since WP (nothing they can do will ever top WP).

Chino puts in a really strong vocal performance here, with less emphasis on his screaming, tbh his voice just can't hack it these days. It's really an album of two halfs, half the album is really fucking heavy in places and the other half is fairly light and melodic, it sounds like an amalgamation of the past 3 albums.

Highlights for me: Royal (the outro of that song is fucking sick) Beauty School (apart from the chorus which I don't care for) Prince (RX Queen anyone?) Sextape is beautiful. There's only about 2 or 3 tracks I'm not really fussed about, which overall means that it's a commendable effort.

Over the question of whether this is the final, mastered version I have my doubts. The guitars sound quite muddy in some of the songs, and Chinos guitar parts are sometimes hard to make out, not really sure how much guitar he even plays on this album. Can't wait to hear a proper rip.

With regards to the quickness of releasing this album, what are your opinions on the situation? Everyone know the story with Chi (really miss his bass playing on this album imo)do you think they maybe released this record quickly to get some funds together to help with his recovery? I've been reading how he has been struggling with his medical bills etc etc (which I find really hard to understand considering he is in a multi million selling metal band, these guys must be pretty well off no?)

Here's hoping they release Eros and it's not another 3 years till the next album.

deftones forever!

lol I love to see deftones enthusiasm but I'm quite sure this is not a more discernibly distinctive album than self titled as much as some like to frown upon, it wasn't a bad album... especially the fucking production dear god...

chi's loose goose dub god reggae like different dimension bass playing and abe's drum sounds on self titled really were amazingly bewilderingly mega groovy.

Yeah you're probably right, S/T was pretty strong actually. I guess it felt like more of a disappointment after WP

  On 3/25/2010 at 10:15 AM, Richy said:

I've been reading how he has been struggling with his medical bills etc etc (which I find really hard to understand considering he is in a multi million selling metal band, these guys must be pretty well off no?)

I think no matter how well off someone is, medical care doesn't come cheap and could easily bankrupt someone. Sad really.

  On 3/25/2010 at 4:59 PM, sidewinder said:

  On 3/25/2010 at 10:15 AM, Richy said:

I've been reading how he has been struggling with his medical bills etc etc (which I find really hard to understand considering he is in a multi million selling metal band, these guys must be pretty well off no?)

I think no matter how well off someone is, medical care doesn't come cheap and could easily bankrupt someone. Sad really.

for sure. rock stars don't get healthcare provided from a corporation. plus, he may not be as rich as you think. also, spending months in a coma in a hospital is costing hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars im guessing. it is super sad.

  On 3/25/2010 at 10:56 AM, Richy said:

Yeah you're probably right, S/T was pretty strong actually. I guess it felt like more of a disappointment after WP

I always liked the S/T and you know after listening to SNW a couple of times this week it isn't as bad as I remember a couple of tracks aside.

Pink Cellphone?

  On 3/26/2010 at 2:02 AM, Fishtank said:

Pink Cellphone?

Pink Cellphone and Mein are easily the only deftones song's I completely hate and cant listen to.

  On 3/26/2010 at 4:42 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

  On 3/26/2010 at 2:02 AM, Fishtank said:

Pink Cellphone?

 

Pink Cellphone and Mein are easily the only deftones song's I completely hate and cant listen to.

Yeah Pink Cellphone is shite. I do like Mein though. Don't really like Xerces or Riviére much either. Aside from that its a great album.

I like Mein ok

I thought it was weird Serj wasn't really mentioned though and he wasn't in the video

serjs vocals are pretty quiet on that track, it might have made that song seems less randomly undeftones ish boring if his vocals were more prominent

I'm really enjoying the new album, start to finish. Chino is the sex on this record. My only complaint is that its only 41 minutes long.

I adore Saturday Night Wrist. Other than White Pony (which is undoubtedly their greatest) I think it's their best. IMO.

This one is good but nothing too fresh or exciting. I quite like 'Sex Tape'. Don't mind the Meshuggah inspired riffs, at least they're something a little different cause not much else has changed in their sound.

  On 3/26/2010 at 5:12 PM, Grizz said:

Yeah Pink Cellphone is shite. I do like Mein though. Don't really like Xerces or Riviére much either. Aside from that its a great album.

I love 'Xerces' but 'Riviére' blows me the fuck away. Absolutely gorgeous song. Provides some truly touching subtlety to the record.

yeah I really dont understand how some peeps can not like the more interesting beautiful songs like xerces in deftones catalog, they dont always get heavyness or the in betweens right but when deftones have gone for pure melodic supernova's they hit the mark

and saying that I'm an ooooooolddd school tones fan, they will never top white pony but I would be really happy if they just made albums similar in raw cohesive dirty heavy nature to around the fur

  On 4/6/2010 at 11:51 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

yeah I really dont understand how some peeps can not like the more interesting beautiful songs like xerces in deftones catalog, they dont always get heavyness or the in betweens right but when deftones have gone for pure melodic supernova's they hit the mark

 

and saying that I'm an ooooooolddd school tones fan, they will never top white pony but I would be really happy if they just made albums similar in raw cohesive dirty heavy nature to around the fur

I don't know Xerces is like Deftones going through the motions for me. I don't think anything of that ilk they have done comes to close to tracks like Teenager & RX Queen. They don't have to I suppose but anything thereafter has just not been half as good imo. I still think White Pony spoils the listener, probably always be one of my favorite albums.

They haven't done a bad or even average album though in their career which is pretty incredible to say they've been going about 17 years.

This album doesn't do it for me, but I like it better than self titled. That's not saying much though.

Bump. Still getting better.

Just listened to it for the first time. Mixed feelings about the weird harmonies all over Chino's vox. I know he did harmonies before but these sound almost too perfect, like pop song perfect. Though I know that's always been an aspect of the 'tones and I may just have to warm up to it.

Upon initial listen, "Royal" is the clear winner for me. God DAMN what a track!

I also agree that "Prince" sounds like a cousin of "RX Queen", and so much so that I really wonder if there's a direct intended correlation...the prince/queen word play just adds to the speculation. I remember reading when WP was released that "RX" was written for Chino's wife, even though they weren't married yet or something?

And I'm sure I'm not the first one to say that it's just so sad to know Chi isn't there. I'd like to find out if any percentage of the cash made from this record or their touring is going straight to Chi. I'd buy this album even if it sucked if I knew it'd help Chi out. Dude signed my WP back in the day.

Around the Fur really was a pivotal album for the 90's. Unfortunately I don't think its influence had much of a positive impact. It was like everything "nu metal" could have been if it weren't... well, shit. These guys were playing their music with emotion without totally aping any one other band. And listening back to it there's nothing really cheesy or overly typical of the era about it. It was setting the blueprints in a lot of ways. I wish more of the right people ended up following them! Ah well... I should rebuy this one --guitar student stole it back in the day, along with 9 other CDs I lent him. Or rather, i lent them to him and then never heard from him again, until a couple years ago when a was randomly coupled up with him for a canvassing job. (We sorted it out at last after many years. He bought me a couple CDs of artists I had not yet been introduced to, and it ended up being more beneficial to me and the long term, maybe...)

I still really enjoy White Pony, but it's less timeless sounding I think, more "of the era". It still helps shape the era, to be fair. They're a rare metal(ish) band that does a lot of really simplistic things really really well. If most metal bands did that, it would just be boring as hell (as in as far from hell as metal could ever get while still remaining metal).

I'll probably check this one out eventually. The thing that hopefully won't kill it for me is Chino still singing from an angsty teenager's perspective --the song titles say it all. That's got to be the one of the hardest part of sustaining a band like this... you pretty much have to ignore the lyrics once the guy singing it get passed 30 --his lyrics really don't age well. Whereas Slayer can just go on being Slayer indefinitely and you can buy it just as much as you ever could. But yeah, I could use me some Deftones back in my diet.

See I don't get the angsty teen vibe from Chino's lyrics at all. Some of it can seem a bit forced like in Rocket Skates, but for the most part, I think he's tapped into a really great median of atmospheric descriptors and fantasy-violence (WP being a big part of that last one). I think that's actually one of the things that separates the Deftones for me, from any other band in their sorta field. The other separator is very much their ability to write solid pop hooks and not resort to screaming over every single second of the song...Chino's Sade-meets-Simon LeBon vocalizing just completes a perfect formula, IMO.

  On 4/12/2010 at 12:17 AM, Mellow U said:

See I don't get the angsty teen vibe from Chino's lyrics at all. Some of it can seem a bit forced like in Rocket Skates

very much agree. when i first hard rocket skates, i was like, guns, razors and knives? really? really? but that "whooo" is so cool i forgave him.

but yea, he still makes it all work somehow and his vocals sound really great on this. this album makes me even more curious about eros. im sure that will see the light of day some time in the future...

new video for Diamond Eyes is up on their Myspace

http://www.myspace.com/deftones

  On 4/6/2010 at 11:51 AM, Blanket Fort Collapse said:

and saying that I'm an ooooooolddd school tones fan, they will never top white pony but I would be really happy if they just made albums similar in raw cohesive dirty heavy nature to around the fur

Around the Fur for me. Don't get me wrong, White Pony and the latter albums are great, but for me ATF is such an intense, tightly wound beast - the drumming on Rickets, Dai the Flu in general - that's their highlight.

Really liking the chorus to Diamond Eyes, more than the slightly petulant 'GUNS! RAZORS! KNIVES! FUCK WITH ME' of Rocket Skates - fuck off Chino, you're pushing 40 now...