hard to explain but it's worth getting hold of anyway. It's a really good record, and whilst it should appeal to fans of both bands, it offer something a little different too. Though I am yet to check out Chino's other non Deftones music, such as Team Sleep & Crosses, I finally ticked something off my list of stuff I've been meaning to buy for ages: The self-titled Palms album, featuring Chino alongside Jeff Caxide, Aaron Harris & Bryant Clifford Meyer from the band Isis. I’ve never heard a live recording that really shines but Lordy it’s always a good time. And much more lucky to witness their maturity as songwriters. I feel lucky to have seen them so many times over the course of jeez 25 years. While I have zero expectations and honor their reasons not to release it, I would love to hear Eros (even if it’s not complete) just to understand how it fits into this and how they got to DE from there. Such an amazing distillation of their approach to blending hardcore/Hum/Depeche Mode with a truly modest effort to deliver them as pop songs (As opposed to trying to write a ‘hit’ - where they go, probably somewhat pressured, on White Pony). I had written them off and hadn’t been engaged for years when that came out (I’ve since come ‘back around’ to Deftones and SNW, pun intended). Maybe a little too long.ĭiamond Eyes is likely a VERY close 2/3 place for me if not my absolute fave.

That being said White Pony has some tremendous songs on it and probably some of my faves. This paved the way for White Pony which is probably the ‘best record’ but ATF is my go to. They brought together so many of their individual influences (non-metal and metal) into one gorgeous thing, which you hardly ever see in heavy music.

There’s still pieces of that record that amaze me in their uniqueness. Hum was also one of my favorite bands at the time so for them to bring that influence into their ‘rap metal’ sound immediately separated them from the rest of the pack and they haven’t looked back since. I saw them debut several of the tracks over two nights at the Cattle Club in Sacramento and the development to that record after Adrenaline is huge. Not easy for a band to do with a sophomore effort. I still regard it very highly based on the leap they made there. It just blew the door open for me when it came out.

Top 10 deftones albums