Well people this is my second review and counting, Ill probably get tired of introducing myself by the 50th or so album but hey, Im a nice guy really. Ive got to admit something now though, I am biased towards Deftones because they were the ones that really got me onto this metal plane of existence in the first place, like a baby who takes his or her mother for the first face that she sees. But my score does not disrupt my opinion on the performance of this album so just bare with me please as it is the first album I ever bought from them and not just a standard automatic purcahse on my part.

Deftones have been around for years believe it or not, since 1988 (but for around 7 years professionally) and even though you might ask the local gimp at the bar or club the fatal "have u heard of the deftones?" question dont be surprised when they just look at you as if your pants had fallen down revealing your pink or spotted hearts nickers and going "what the f''k what are you talking about of course Ive heard of them." Its because people like to think the deftones are unknown to almost everyone, but like a strutting big busted brunette walking down the street with those mysterious dark enchanting eyes we have all had to take a good stare and whiff at her beauty and perfume with the industry standard zombie look on our warped faces, and when we go home to our girlfriends or our porno videos or whatever you the mental picture of "her" luscious serene body is still in our mind, (some of us even take action but we wont be going down that line thats for sure, yuk!!!)

You see The Deftones are that Big busted Mysterious looking brunette and while people still obviously go for the blonde beach babe with planet engulfing assets as a personal preference it would be a terribe TERRIBLE sin of course to think that the blonde is better in bed than the brunette. Of course at this point somebody will stand up in the auditorium and yell "hey a''wipe where talking about music not your personal preferences for women, get on with it" and so I shall (after shouting abuse back at the standing man of course). Lets just say that in the long run you might be better off with the dark Brunette.

About 2 years ago I didnt have any metal albums at all apart from one, which was the hugely successful Linkin Park, but I mean come on, the world loved that album and the videos were getting played on every single music channel available (bar vhi classic that would just be rediculous) The Box, Smash hits and all the other gay dance channels in history and the pop zombies were well, dancing and nodding their heads to Linkin parks multiple singles including the smasher One step closer and the throat gurgling crawling. Anyhoo on with my point I didnt have a clue what all this nu-metal nonsense was about, I mean at a unconcious level maybes I had an idea bout it being a new generation of metal. Since Nu-Metal was apparently sparked off by KORN with their first album in 1994 everybody appraised that new foul disgusting guitar sludge driven sound that Jonathan Davis and his motley crew were singing about but what was Nu-Metal exactly??

what were its boundries??

The Deftones's underground album adrenaline came out in 1995 set just after the aftermath of KORNS wave of new metal sounds. At this time KORN ECLIPSED the deftones enough for their album never being able to surface properly to the mainstream, instead just staying in the purgatory its musical cousin sentenced them to. Of course the deftones album was never going to be able to top Korn, at that current time however, you see the DEFTONES have an unbelieveable amount of almost godlike hidden energy that is available between them because of the chemcial reactions that many have witnessed in between the personalities and cultural backgrounds of their group. You see while Korn is bad and dirty DEFTONES ARE JUST EVIL

The Deftones include Chino Moreno (A mexican\chinese) frontman with a passion and a voice that can have him moaning like a banshee or screaming like a cat and just recently playing guitar for the first time in an album. I will tell you something though, he has the most unique and incredible voice in the entire history which is right up there with Maynard James Keenan except with Keenan you get a human reference to his voice but with Chino its something elese, something more sinister and different, and it is refreshing to see this kind of sound in a face which does not really fit that sound if u know what I mean. There is Guitarist Stephen Carpenter in which his sweeping and brutal riffs have bypassed and even rewritten the rulebook for which I applaud him for especially in tracks like Be quiet and drive from their second album where he has produced a trademark sound that has fitted him well with the title of 'god of the axe'. The kind of distortion he produces really is totally different from anything else out there, and believe me the amount of equipment the man uses in live shows prooves that. I went to the Download festival in march this year and believe me every time he plays a song it will always sound different which is amazing, Chino also changes the lyrics around a bit to keep people on their feet and also likes to joke around with the crowd, he took the p''s out of 50 cents 'In da club' singing the lyrics cause believe it or not, it was on the Kerrang rock channel, rediculous as it may seem. Chi Cheng is on Bass but this is the kind of bass that actually has the dynamics and sound to have power battles with the lead stringer, which is impressive to witness and listen to. Abe cunninghanm is the drummer with a mile a minute voice as well as gut wrenching mega fast beats (you think someone was playing with your head) and send the thundercloud closer to home. A new addition to the Deftones is a DJ known as Frank Delgado, you must hear this, he is no odinary DJ and unlike linkin park where there DJ does all the scarthing and the mixing of certain tracks much like DJ lethal ala Limp bizkit, Frank actually does what people are now getting used to with a term knwon as 'Spinning for atmosphere', in otherwords none of that scratching s''t and more of a 'soothing ghostly noises' performance which give you the goosebumps as well as your head moving back and forth like a frantic beast to see if anybody is around the corner or under your bed.

Their first album barely even scracthed the surface of this raw power they possess which would later provide the catalyst to make deftones transcend to a higher plane of being (and into a new musical genre altogether. And in the Matrix driven quote that MORPHEUS explains to NEO

"They will never be as strong or as fast as you can be"

and on that note heres my point. DEFTONES have transcended KORN Ladies and gentlemen as well as all the other shameless copies that have sold s''t loads more than these people (even though they were feeding off deftones in the first place) just because of those bands being more 'popular' than Deftones. Besides isnt it cooler in all stories how the underdog surpasses his superior. Damn right it is so now its time for me to tell you why these people should get all what they deserve and more.

THE ALBUM OF THE NEW FRONTIER

Basically by the time their sophomore album came out which was titled 'Around the Fur' they had jetrocketed them selves straight out of the undergrond like a thermonuclear explosion with planet destroying zilla tunes such as 'My own summer((Shove it)) and my personal favourite song of all time (and the one that made myself give in and buy a deftones album) Be quiet and drive ((far away)). Lets get down to it, I already enjoyed watching the vid for Change on mtv2 so I was looking for that album in my local store with change on it but no luck. Last year in feb 02 it was my friends birthday so I decided to look for a decent album with some cool s''t that he liked on it so I went back into the same store and was thinkin about buying him a deftones album, then some greyish cover caught my eye which I had not seen on my previous outing. I picked it up and sure enough in the bottom right corner of the case the infamous white pony was there, in a permanent galloping pose. I looked on the back to see the tracklisting and I found change, so I didnt have enough money to buy it as well as Andy's so I thought to myself this would be the perfect present for him Ill just borrow it off him later and so I did.

Like I mentioned in my previous reivew I think beginnings and endings to an album are the most important and best decide the replayability of the album and with this album you cant get any more perfect.

The album starts with a song called FEITICEIRA which kicks off by repeating guitar lines by Carpenter. Apparently this track is about a women that has kidnapped this man in a car and he is in the back of the trunk suffering, I enjoy the lyrics.

SOON THIS WILL BE ALL OVER/WELL I HOPE SOON then constantly humming SOON I WILL LET YOU GO
SOON I WILL LET YOU GO

Even though early on in the album this appears to have the best opening track I have heard in my entire collection, it really is that effective with Abes recourring beats and the way the song is crafted to be sequenced in more of a continuous prose than a repeating attribute much like this for example

VERSE
CHORUS
VERSE
CHORUS X2
VERSE REPEAT
CHORUS X2

With this song it tends to use something different and carves its own path with almost no looping of verses and choruses which is using imagination and thought which I respect. Although the songs tend to stay within their own world

The entire album is a concept album and can be related much in the wake of RADIOHEAD's OK Computer album which is hailed as the best RADIOHEAD album of all time (arguably) and each song is a different scenario and short story which all comes together at the end. DIGITAL BATH sees Frank moving into the foreground with a swirling noise which I think is supposed to eminate steam rising up from a bath and the feeling of a naked body getting into the bath and Abes cool chilled beats calming the listener. Chino then kicks in to provide a suitabilly calmed voice,

YOU MOVE LIKE I WANT TO/TO SEE LIKE YOUR EYES DO

I really think that the colloboration of having two guitars as well as the bass enhances the sound to make it feel more defined and strong. This is incredible stuff and one of my favourite tracks on the album.

The story to this track according to Chino is that a man is giving this women a bath and washing her hair and all sorts of crazy intimacy touchy feelly stuff, then the man gets out the bath and throws an electrical device (probably a radio) in the bath electrifying her, (DIGITAL BATH, not just a clever song name) but the real thriller is the fact that the way the song is played out as a love song rather than the murder aspect you dont even realise whats happening at the core of the song until its all over. (much in the way of a murderer and his/her murder victim, HOW COOL IS THAT)

Also you can tell that the bath has been disturbed by the effects which I think Carpenter uses, some sort of AQUA dripping noise which enables the listener to feel as if he is in a bath himself. VERY COOL

AND I KNOW YOU CAN SEE THE CHORD BRAKE AWAY/NEW LIFE BREAK AWAY/CAUSE TONIGHT/I FEEL LIKE MORE

Next up is arguably the heaviest track on the album called ELITE, dont let the soft feel of this album get to you, the deftones have buried their secrets and evil intent even deeper into this particular album so its up to you to dig them out. Chino screams like a cheshire cat straight away before anything else kicks in which surprises you on a first listen, I was drying my hair half naked at the time and when that kicked in I almost fell over lol.

WHEN YOUR RIPE YOU'LL BLEED OUT OF CONTROL/YOULL BLEED OUT OF CONTROL

STEPHENS constant strumming really does get the blood going as it makes you want to jump up and down and shout abuse at people

YOURE PREGNANT/WITH ALL THIS SPACE/THICK LIKE HONEY/BUT IVE LOST MY TASTE

We then get to the first of the experimental tracks, this one being called RX queen, its a really moody and relaxing track which at this point you have to begin to appreciate the tracking order of the album and the way everything comes together. This track is all about the protagonist being in the moment and in love and not caring for her imperfections and if she hurts him so what and so on.

CAUSE YOUR MY GIRL AND THATS ALL RIGHT/IF YOU STING I WONT MIND

Later on in the album we come across the second experimental track known as 'Teenager' I have to say this is the centre and heart of the album, many people who bought previous deftones outings will be surprised by the move Deftones have taken to include this track. This is actually a Team Sleep song and if you are paying any interest Team Sleep is Chinos Side project and features drum machines sound samples and a cool voice which describes this song as well. This song reminds me of APC's 'The Nurse who loved me' because of the ancient sounding music samples.

NOW IM TRHOUGH WITH THE OTHER YOU/NEW YOU
I DROVE YOU HOME THEN YOU MOVED AWAY/THE CAVERN IT MOVED HER TO/MY HEAR TODAY
THE MORE I SCREAM THE MORE IT SEEMS/NOW IM THROUGH

Beautiful

Its back to the heavy stuff again as we come out the other side of the abyss straight into a 'KNIFE PARTY'

MY KNIFE IS SHARP AND CHROME/COME SEE INSIDE MY BONES

I really like this track as Stephen carpenter Chino and Chi all come together to create the roots of the songs melodies and on top of that Abe keeps a steady pace and moves in and out of the Strumming like a rabbit getting chased by a fox.

I CAN FLOAT HERE FOR EVER/IN THIS ROOM WE CANT TOUCH THE FLOOR

On the 9th Track and to everbodys surprise Chino trades lyrics with Mayneard James keenan for 'PASSENGER' a smooth and twisty song in which the scenario is apprently that someone is giving their partner a b''w job while driving. COOL!!!!!

TO CALM ME WONT YOU PLEASE DRIVE FASTER (go faster if u know what I mean)
ROLL THESE STEAMY WINDOWS DOWN/

The lyrics which reveal this could be arguably correct for that scenario but I wonder.

Now onto the single, Change has been a commercial success because of the slow moody bass lines and the carpenter standard sound, except the deftones sound has been toned to a lower pitch to suit the atmosphere and DJ Frank gets his say again as he spins that atmosphere like a BIATCH!!!
This song gives me goosebumps and its a song I can relate to. The song starts off with gentle strumming as carpenter and Frank eases us into the mood.

I WATCHED A CAHNGE IN YOU/ ITS LIKE YOU NEVER HAD WINGS AND NOW YOU FEEL SO ALIVE/I WACTHED THE CHANGE



Halfway through the song Chino encompasses a sort humming which produces a sort of soothing effect.

I TOOK YOU HOME/SET YOU ON THE GLASS/PULLED OFF YOUR WINGS/THEN I LAUGHED

The Last track is the 3rd Experimental track known as PINK MAGGIT but more in timing than content. This is the Deftones first attempt at a slow burner (sort of like the timing that TOOL stick to that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the album but a damn good try nonethelss, its still a cool song though and they have made a good decision placing this at the end of the album rather than have it stuck somewhere in the middle, people would have just skipped the track if they did that. This track is actually the full non edited version of BACK TO SCHOOL in its original form but the MINI MAGGIT is not avaialable on this Cd, only on the revised addition but I think it was a very bad decision not the deftones fault by the way but they actually released the updated edition of white pony with back to school at the start (AAAAAAAGH) without telling the band. GRRRRR

WHITE PONY is one of those albums like A perfect circle where everything clicks straight away, yet still has the depth of an epic universe to get lost in like TOOL's Lateralus album to keep you coming back for more, and boy will you do just that. GET IT and be part of the transcending experience. So remember even though there might be a better looking lass that you want to approach lets not forget about the mysterious girl who sits in the dark and watches your every move, you have been WARNED!!!!!




Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends