Listened to this on a drive today. It’s good, definitely better than Gore. I should have gone in with more tempered expectations, though.
Definitely how I feel. My expectations were through the roof after the singles and a lot of my initial time with the album has been spent trying to redress that.
It is weird how music media latched onto that; as far as I'm aware, Stef played an eight string for most of the record, and the nine string is on it in the same way that seagulls are on it.
This album might make its way past WP for me... right now I'm thinking: S/T / ATF Ohms WP SNW They are all so close to each other though.
I feel like with my posts lately maybe it comes off as downplaying how much I love KNY, I will never ever forget the feeling I got listening to Swerve City for the first time, and the rush of that bass fill Serg does at the beginning of the verses. great ass track. Koi is def my fav of the prior 3 and was my second fav overall for a while, but with time I kinda realized just how much that was riding on the quality of the opening run. there’s a song or two in the backhalf that feels... idk not bad but redundant and not up to par with the strength of the songs that preceded it. it took me a long time to realize how good WHTY is as well but now it’s one of my fav closers by them. this album retains a lot of things I loved about that album tbh.
see what’s interesting to me is the album feels darker and more aggressive to me than DE did, I actually feel like DE is the “sunniest” record in their discog, for lack of better wording. that could also do with it coming out when it did (May right?). tbh with time, DE feels like more of a straight forward alt-rock record to me than anything else they’ve done.
Feelings at the moment White Pony Deftones SNW Diamond Eyes Ohms KNY ATF Adrenaline Gore This band is so good. It feels crazy I can be this keen on an album but it only lines up as middling in their whole discography.
This cover giving me a newfound appreciation of Stef's riffage on this song. Just now figuring out that he and Justin Beck have basically shaped my appreciation of guitar playing to be mostly about chord choice, rhythm, and tone over shredding
It's definitely more straight-forward, and I think that might have been because it was the fastest record they've written. I read an article where Chino said that after they shelved Eros and just jammed out their emotions with what happened to Chi, they were just completely in sync with each other and wrote the entire album in like a month. Definitely feels that way, and I don't think it's a detriment to the album. Edit: found it! Good article too. Chino Moreno Reviews Every Deftones Album, Including The New ’Ohms’
My initial impression is that this lands in the middle of their discography. And that’s not saying it’s bad, they just have others I like more.
The more I listen to this, the more I think it really is an amalgamation of the past two records. It's great. I'm not sure that I love how bright Chino's melodies are from time to time, but the music is unrelenting. Favorites right now are "The Spell of Mathematics" and "Radiant City." I don't think this cracks my too five yet, but it rivals KNY for the #5 spot.
I'm still in awe at The Spell Of Mathematics. I love how many sludge / post-metal influences Stef brought into his guitar work this time around.
Some interesting stuff on DPC's Deftones special last night. Apparently Chino recorded a completely different vocal for Genesis and then decided he wasn't happy with it and wrote the more aggressive one that exists on there now.
Error is such an amazing song but it wouldn't be half the song it is if not for Chino's vocals. he truly makes it special