different strokes. I know this is more in line with what most listeners of modern rock/metal expect but my tastes are inclined for more dynamic masters. I just find super hot masters to be fatiguing and especially with this one I felt like I could literally hear the information being clipped off.
Does anyone know what the catalyst is/was for their sudden increase in popularity? I was talking to my friend about it, but neither of us could really explain it. They were playing ~7k cap venues in the northeast just a few years ago, and now are filling NBA arenas with no new music (at the time the shows went on sale/were played.) Did they blow up on TikTok or something?
here are some updated overall discog thoughts btw: i think koi no yokan ends up being my favorite, with s/t and around the fur next up (sorry @nohandstoholdonto). swerve city and romantic dreams are perfect songs gore is underrated imo. it’s got a sappier energy that i guess speaks to my preferences though lol. i love phantom bride i liked adrenaline more than i expected even if id put it at the bottom. bored rules i had a blast falling in love with this band during the last couple months
While it's another great record, I did have stronger first reactions to Ohms and Diamond Eyes. Have a feeling this one will grow on me like Koi No Yokan did back then.
infinite source may be my favorite I know many of you will be dismayed but I think about you all the time hasn't really landed for me in the same way it has for a lot of you quite yet
how dare you!!! >:( jk honestly I get it. Koi used to be in the top 3 for me for a long time but I have some hang ups with it now. I think a lot of what carries that record is the atmospheric work on it, and it has very high highs, but a few of the songs are substantially weaker than the rest (any song that starts with “G” on that record lol) and they drag down the flow for me.
Yep, a few songs started being used more and more on TikTok and it snowballed from there. With the resurgence of the 90s/early 00s, anything Y2K trending, it's like a right time right place situation for the band
to me, they’re just fine, like I am not gonna skip them on full album playthroughs, but I also never feel the urge to listen to them on their own. each of them actually has parts I think rule but they’re littered amongst much less interesting parts.
They've also had a continuous output of quality material which really separated them from their peers. People want to see the new stuff as much as the old. It's pretty amazing and well deserved.
My biggest early impressions revolve around consistency and cohesiveness. I think this is the first LP that sets a vibe I can easily get lost in without temptation to skip tracks since DE. Not sure there's a lot truly new here (nor has there been since sometime around SNW or DE), but it does feel like a better constructed and focused album than the last few. Maybe not a coincidence it has the shortest runtime since DE, but I think it's more about the consistent atmosphere. I have complaints about the production, but oh well, that's pretty much a given at this point. Infinite Source to Metal Dreams is a hell of a run. Milk is the only semi weak point in there for me. Glad the singles turned out to be the somewhat bland outliers and not the highlights.
I still fuck with a lot of the bands they came up with (KoRn, Limp Bizkit, etc) but not one of them has a track record like Deftones
I attributed it to the festival shows of late opening them up to new audiences. They seemed to have great response at the clips I saw. Kids are all into the late 90s/early 2000s right now.
I can't think of very many other bands with such consistency throughout a decades long career. ETID and Thrice are the only others that immediately come to mind.
Couple moments that are catching my ear: the metal riff brought in to compliment the main riff towards the end of Ecdysis rules. Infinite Source is incredible. Souvenir is just fine to me and sounds very Ohms. I Think About You All the Time (that acoustic guitar halfway through is so good) into Milk of the Madonna is probably my favorite 1-2 punch of the album, and Madonna is really elevated in context of the album. Cut Hands is very This Link Is Dead, even down to where it sits in the tracklisting.