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‘White Pony’ could have been that trap for Deftones. Most bands are lucky to have that one record that becomes canon, and then spend the rest of their career dining out on its legacy.
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In truth, they’d found the purest version of themselves. At the turn of the century – when the scene became all frat boys and red caps – they truly set themselves apart with 2000’s ‘White Pony’ – an epic, histrionic adventure in sound and emotion that earned them the tag “the heavy metal Radiohead”. They were weird enough to seem like outliers, but lazily labelled as nu-metal. Formed in their teens in 1988 and marrying a love of metal with alt-pop, punk, rap and new wave, Deftones’ misfit alchemy was unleashed on the world with debut ‘Adrenaline’ in 1995 before the post-punk-meets-hardcore excellence of ‘Around The Fur’ in 1997. Consistency and a high bar are part and parcel with Deftones. It’s this assurance that drives ‘Ohms’ over the finish line to become a total triumph. To leave it in there was scary, but I’m happy with it.” Music’s always been more of an escape from what’s going on and all that we’re being bombarded with. To me, that just doesn’t match with music. “I just said it in that song and thought about changing it because we’ve never been a political band. “My response is that I don’t trust anybody.” “That’s a strong statement in these political times when everyone is barking at each other: ‘I’m right’, ‘No, I’m right’, ‘No, I’m right’, ‘No, I’m right’,” says Moreno. When there’s more chance of decent debate by screaming into a toilet than logging onto Twitter or Facebook, it’s a pretty relatable mantra. “ I’ve seen right through, now I watch how wild it gets – I finally achieve balance”. “ I reject both sides of what I’m being told,” he squawks. Straight off the bat on battlecry opening track ‘Genesis’, Moreno plants his flag firmly in the ground. “We’ve never just been a metal band, we’ve never just been an alternative band, we’ve always just been us” We feel comfortable in never having to choose.” “We’ve never just been a metal band, we’ve never just been an alternative band, we’ve always just been us. “That yin and yang of what we’ve always done makes us who we are,” says Moreno.
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It’s about knowing your place in a world of opposing forces. That push and pull and the space between is what this record is all about – Deftones’ dichotomy of beauty and brutality, with a current running between sounds, moods, genres, vitriol and vulnerability. Here comes the science bit: ohms are the unit of measurement for electrical resistance between two points.
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Plus, we imagine they probably felt a little more comfortable about the whole affair knowing that they had another masterpiece about to drop in ninth album ‘Ohms’. It’s less than a couple of months since we last spoke to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their game-changing third album ‘White Pony’ and though Deftones aren’t usually ones for looking back, a record as seismic as that demanded it. Hope, solidarity and taking stock are very much the order of the day as the singer calls us while he’s out on a long walk – a habit he’s developed for when he needs to talk through the big stuff and “get the endorphins going in his head”. The chorus is saying that we’re going to remain here together and nothing’s going to change that.” “It could be about an experience or a relationship, but honestly in my mind I was thinking about the environment and the Earth. “That’s not directly about one thing,” Moreno tells NME when quizzed about the lyrics. A resolve and optimism rises from the gloom as the chorus assures us, “ Time won’t change this promise we made – it’s how we’ll stay”. For Moreno at least, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a fittingly post-apocalyptic image for these dumpster fire times and our need to sever ties with broken ways of being if we’re going to get out of this alive. “We’re surrounded by debris of the past,” croons Deftones frontman Chino Moreno on the title track from the Sacramento art-metallers’ new opus ‘Ohms’.