Deftones continues to craft music with their distinctive metal edge. The Sacramento, California band releases their tenth album, private music, (stylized in lowercase, as are the song titles.) It’s their first studio album in five years.
The album has been generally well-received by fans and critics, though, honestly, to me it sounds very similar to the material the band has always produced. It’s a new take on what they do well, but it doesn’t venture beyond that.
When Deftones rose to popularity in the latter half of the ’90s, it was largely due to their exceptional vocalist, Chino Moreno, whose wide and dynamic vocal range remains the band’s greatest strength. Moreno has always carried Deftones from their beginnings with his powerful screams and deep expressions of anguish, and he continues to be the band’s cornerstone.
Musically, while Deftones’ members have always been somewhat technically limited, the band has set itself apart from contemporaries by creating a metal style infused with dream-pop, art-rock, and experimental music influences.
In private music, Deftones sticks to the same script, drawing on the style established with their 1997 song, Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), from their second album, Around the Fur. This song, arguably the most important in their career, remains so popular that the band chose it to open their recent private music tour performances, deliberately setting the concert’s tone from the start. It’s the “if it works, don’t fix it” formula, I suppose.
Still, I must admit that private music captivated me at times, like with the song ~metal dream and its dreamy chorus:
“In your dreams, all we see are the gold drenched days laid ahead.
Off we sleep and soon we’ll sink in perfect pose together.”
It’s impossible not to be drawn in by that desperate emotionality, but I’m no longer a misunderstood, angsty teenager to fully dive into it. I enjoy it, but in the end, it feels somewhat inconsequential to me.
One song that particularly stood out is cXz, perhaps the heaviest track on the album. It’s a dramatic assault on the senses. There’s no escaping Moreno’s screams in the verses.
Amid all the emotive metal, there’s also a slow ballad, i think about you all the time, which is pretty decent.
I found the use of synthesizers in parts of the album interesting, like in the opening of ecdysis or the closing of souvenir, creating a temporarily modern and electronic atmosphere. However, their presence is brief and fades quickly. I wish the band had explored this electronic aspect more.
private music is a good album. Fans will instantly recognize Deftones’ signature sound and be satisfied with this release, no doubt, but it’s like fast food: familiar, comforting, but not particularly memorable. It’s well-crafted music with the Deftones stamp. In that sense, there’s nothing to fault, except that it offers nothing new, which isn’t necessarily bad, though it’s far from being a classic for the history books.
Additionally, most songs clock in at barely three minutes. It’s almost like “blink and you’ll miss it.”
That said, I have to confess I love the album cover with the snake on a striking green background. (Slytherin, too much?)
Deftones remains a solid band. They’re the “art kids” of mainstream American metal. However, 25 years ago, their sound was fresher, more compelling, and relatively original. Today, it risks getting lost in the sea of more innovative bands.
