Deftones "Diamond Eyes" - 05.04.10

The title track.

Prefer this to Rocket Skates, but still sounds like it's gonna play in the same shitty musical playground Saturday Night Wrist did.

Which means, I can look forward to hearing the other two good tracks on this album.

I dig Sex Tape. I'd still like to see them hit a little harder, however. Hexagram and Push It are still my favorites by them. I understand that Moreno might be a little leery of pushing his vocals for the harder material after the paralysis episode, but that doesn't mean the band can't crank it up a bit.

I'd still rather hear 'Eros'. Not sure if they are waiting for the bassist to recover to release it cause it sounds like that ain't happening.

White Pony, hands down. Added the perfect amount of spice to that Around the Fur formula to make it interesting which, has ATF ran on a track or two longer, would've grated on me something fierce.

White Pony is amazing. I've never been a big Deftones fan, but I've given them all a fair shake. That disc is a great balance.

Yeah, pretty much where my approval lies as well. Sex Tape sounds like something Radiohead cut from In Rainbows.

Lunacy. Sheer lunacy.


White Pony's still my favorite, and I'd pretty much say is objectively their best album. But SNW was great, and if you enjoyed White Pony, I don't know how you wouldn't dig it.

Except for a few tracks (Hole In The Earth, Rapture, Beware, Mein), that album is all vague grooves and random riffs that go nowhere. What made White Pony work is that the ethereality actually had well-structured, amazing songs attached to them. Even Chino admits they spent too much time fucking about with no real point on SNW.

Completely agree. Honestly, and maybe I'm putting a target on myself here, none of their albums have worked for me as complete wholes since White Pony.

I'd like for this album to feature a similar emphasis on structure; if it does so, then it could be the first really great Deftones album in about a decade.

The self-titled has its share of misses, but I still enjoy it. Gets more repetitive than White Pony, but there's a few gems to be found (Hexagram, Battle Axe, Bloody Cape in particular.)

Oh, no doubt, but I can't listen to the self-titled album from start to finish. I have to pick my songs. It's not quite as shapeless as SNW, but for me the shape, here, isn't the problem-- it's that the songs just don't get there.

I'll check this out, but I'm more interested in the possibility of a second Team Sleep album, which I believe is supposed to surface sometime this year or next. Now I'm going to wiki this EROS thing you guys mentioned.

So, this came out yesterday.

I figured we might be in trouble early on with Royal and CMND/CTRL coming across boring as hell.

I think it was more that they wanted to get the two weak tracks out of the way before they spent the next 8 tracks knocking this motherfucker out the park.

It's AMAZING.

As with most Deftones releases, I really like it. However, this one's going to have to grow on me. I don't quite dig it as much as SNW. That may change though.

I think Chino's vocals are possibly the best they've been, so that's a start.

I still LOATHE Carpenter's guitar tone. Love the way he writes, fucking HATE the tone he chooses. But that's the guitar geek in me taking over. Still, great album.

Wouldn't be surprised if this one needs to grow on a lot of people. Since my first post in this thread, I've done a complete 180 on Rocket Skates. I've been loving the hell out of that track for a couple of weeks now.

I only have given it one listen through at this point. But from memory, the latter half seemed to grab me a lot more than the front.

I picked this up, but I only listened to it once all the way through. i definitely think it's an album that you have to listen to a few times before it sinks in. I wasn't a huge fan of Rocket Skates the first time I heard it, but the more I listen to it, the more I like it.

I personally think the SNW was pretty great and worked as an overall album a lot better than the self-titled album did, although Deftones does have some phenomenal tracks.

One thing that annoys me is that I bought the CD and then I saw that the iTunes release has 3 extra songs on it, and was less expensive from the CD. I am not a huge fan of downloading "illegally", but I might have to find those tracks another way, since I never buy through iTunes.

I love it.

It's heavy and fierce and proves that 99.99% of the stuff on the radio is so toothless. Makes that BACK GIVES WAY TO BLUE sound like mere radio-rock. All the years without Cheng, all the years of waiting around doing nothing, the disappointment and tension over the last three albums, b/w band members, b/w band and producers... all of it's poured onto this record.

The only warning I'll say is that the sound is thick and heavy, so it takes a few listens for the songs to come through clear, but now it's definitely may favorite new rock release in the past few years, certainly my favorite album of the big rock bands of today.

Way better than SNW. Better than DEFTONES. AROUND THE FUR and ADRENALINE have had time to build up nostalgia, though I personally like DIAMOND EYES more than those first two. WHITE PONY still probably their overall best just because somehow they managed to make pretty much every song on WP so catchy. Even the non-single songs ("Knife Party", "Passenger", "Elite") are great concert singalongs.

That and the cover is just plain awesome.

Have you seen this?

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6681343

Deftones performing Diamond Eyes in it's entirety. Pretty cool. The only odd thing is there is no audience so there is just silence between each song.

I have not seen that, but I did see them live in concert a couple of days before the album release. 'Twas the second time I've seen them live. The first time was around SNW (they only played 3 songs from the album! Guess they didn't even like it that much...) They took a thirty-minute or so break right in the middle. This time they rocked out from beginning to end. I think there was a 10 minute break where Carpenter remained on stage, smoked whatever and played with some guitar tones. Kinda neat, though obviously not Sonic Youth-level neat. Overall they seemed to have way more energy. Chino was running around on stage and stuff. Of course Carpenter still stands perfectly still and seems to meditate while performing. And Abe on the drums was pretty wild. A couple of times he hopped off his stool he was so into the performance.

I'm a big fan of this approach. What ever it takes to make the sound coming out the speakers = gold. While it's fun to watch, stage-crazy singers usually sound like asshole. (Haven't seen them live though, so can't comment on Chino)



Also, update: album has really grown on me. I'd now agree it's their best work since White Pony.

Chino's usually all over the place. How he sounds varies on how much alcohol he's had prior.

Eh. I see the appeal in a "fuck yeah! Rock and roll!" way. But I'm always just more concerned with how it sounds first and foremost. And if that means don't drink as much/be as rowdy... so be it.

But whatever. Still really want to catch them live. Would KILL to see them with Mastodon this summer.


ETA: Well, they sound pretty damn good in that live link up there. Nice.

The first time I saw them live, the guitar volume was WAY too fucking loud. I literally could not recognize a song until halfway through, and I've listened to those songs dozens of time.

As for Chino: He was drinking vodka on stage. A couple of times he hit the wrong tone: hitting a loud note when he was supposed to croon, but overall they had more energy than last time. Last time, from what I understand, Chino was just coming off a long cocaine binge, and now he hit the stage clean, so, yeah, now they perform way above their level 3 - 4 years ago.

They're touring with Mastodon and Alice and Chains. Tickets, I believe, are already on sale, so hurry!

You've Seen The Butcher, Sextape and Risk are some of the best tracks this group has ever done.

This is a great album. "Risk" & "You've Seen The Butcher", in particular, continue to prove that Carpenter is one of the greatest secret weapons in modern rock. That guy's riffs could cut down a fucking tree. I'd probably put this album right around the middle of their body of work in terms of quality, on par with self-titled (under ATF/White Pony, over Adrenaline/SNW). To put an album this good even that far down the list really says a lot about how consistently solid their writing is, if you ask me. It's definitely a breath of fresh air after SNW, which I liked but I think it's probably their weakest effort (WAY more album filler than I'm used to hearing from them). One of my favorite things about Diamond Eyes is that Cunningham's drum work sounds so revitalized after being positively boring throughout SNW; the guy is a phenomenal drummer when he's on his game, & he is back big time on this one.

I'm still dying to hear Eros. From what I understand, they wanted to record/release something with a bit more positive energy than Eros after all the shit they've gone through the last couple years (Chi's ongoing condition playing no small part, I'm sure).

Glad to see some fellow Deftones fans around here.

Bought this yesterday and so glad I did. Very pleased with "butcher" and "sextape" although "sextape" is technically constructed like "Be quiet and drive" but that's one of my favorite songs so it's totally cool.

For me? Easily the best Deftones release since White Pony. What an awesome album. Frankly, once you get past the title track-- which of course kicks off the entire disc-- everything is golden. I think "You've Seen The Butcher" really kicks Diamond Eyes into the realm of sonic bliss, but honestly I think my favorite track my actually be "Royal", which somehow reminds me of the kind of aural style that bands like Helmet (specifically Helmet) went for back in their heydays.

Really, just an amazing album.

Another thing I'm liking is the whole pace of the album. There's no slow-opening song ala "Minerva". Even "You've Seen the Butcher" moves pretty fast through its stoner rock groove. "Beauty School" and "Sextape" seem like they should be around 5+ minutes, and yet they're done in only 4. Nice.