‘Gore’ Finds Deftones Striking Perfect Balance Between Intensity and Melody
Matt Matasci
From their inception, Deftones have been horribly mislabeled. It is true Chino Moreno adopted a rap cadence on some early cuts and the band’s chunky, dropped-D, aggro-guitar riffs allowed them to fit in on the late ’90s or early ’00s modern rock radio stations. But despite those characteristics, the group’s core of Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter and drummer Abe Cunningham have always displayed a greater understanding of underground music history than any of the bands they were lumped in with. Songs on “White Pony” had as much to do with Failure and My Bloody Valentine as they did with Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park. The evidence of their black sheep status amongst nü-metal bands keeps piling up. It is impossible to imagine any of their so-called peers producing an album one-tenth as nuanced and sublime as the 11 songs on “Gore.”
Opening track “Prayers/Triangles” is also the first tidbit of “Gore” that the music world had access to when it was debuted on Zane Lowe’s “The World Record” in early February. It ranks among the greatest songs in their discography beginning with an ethereal, delay-affected guitar riff and exploding into the kind of distorted wall-of-sound choruses that allow them to be embraced by mainstream rock fans and the punk rock crowd simultaneously. Structurally it is not a particularly complicated song. It oscillates between the quiet verse and hypnotically repetitive chorus, only breaking once for a vocally intense, instrumentally restrained bridge that reappears to close out the track.
“Hearts/Wires” is the second track to feature a dual title and it closes out the first half of “Gore” with its most subdued and radio-friendly song. The first minute and a half features nothing but a clean, arpeggiated guitar riff before Moreno’s quiet vocals enter the mix. While there are occasional moments of surprising intensity it mostly sticks to mid-tempo melodicism. “Pittura Infamante” is the catchiest moment on the record, upping the pace with a chord-based guitar riff in the verse and a pummeling chorus.
“Doomed User” was the second song to be released from “Gore.” Unlike the initial single’s subdued verses, this track goes for the throat, only to loosen its grip for a short choral respite. Carpenter’s guitars have a buzz-saw quality while former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega provides the chugging low-end that reminds listeners why nü-metal fans are paying close attention to this release. The pummeling doesn’t stop for the listener once “Doomed User” concludes. “Geometric Headdress” opens with Moreno’s impassioned shrieking though it transitions to a smooth chorus that is vintage Deftones. After the relative peacefulness of the mid-tempo “Pittura Infamante,” “Xenon” and “(L)mirl,” the title track offers the heaviest moment on “Gore” with a chorus that is pure ‘90’s aggro-metal nostalgia.
Deftones have offered up yet another album that will appease both its more mainstream metal fans and those who cherish the band’s willingness to experiment texturally and atmospherically. While there are no obvious radio hits on “Gore,” it stands with “White Pony” and “Around the Fur” as some of the best work of their long-running careers.