June 20, 2000 - White Pony

Two weeks after my last release and over two and a half years since "Around The Fur", Deftones released their third album "White Pony" on June 20, 2000. Frank Delgado (who played turntables on several songs last album as a guest) is now a full-time member of the band and he also plays keyboards on this album as well. Lead singer Chino Moreno also contributes on rhythm guitar for the first time and Deftones bring a lot of new influences onto this album as they dip their toes into several different genres, while still staying in the alternative metal sphere. Let's see what the latest from Deftones sounds like!

The album kicks off with it's second single "Back To School (Mini Maggit)" and Moreno raps a pretty fast and cool verse overtop a catchy lead guitar riff by Stephen Carpenter. Chino switches to his usual droning singing voice in the chorus and he and the music both sound nice and smooth. There's a couple times when Moreno screams all out, and I especially love his longer one at the end of the song. This was a good choice to open the album and up next is "Feiticeira" as Abe Cunningham plays a catchy drum beat with Carpenter leading the way with a decent but repetitive guitar riff. Chino sings this whole song and he sounds good, but I find the lack of mixing things up makes things a little stagnant. This was a decent song, but not one of their best. Track 3 is "Digital Bath" and Chino sings a quiet but epic verse overtop a similarly quiet but epic main riff with some more catchy drums by Cunningham. Everything gets louder in the chorus as the guitars really pick up and Chino sings a nice loud chorus. Delgado adds some cool 8-bit sounding keyboards to the quiet mix and then they nicely explode into another loud chorus to finish things off. The next track is "Elite" and they dive right into a wicked heavy main riff with some fantastic guitars and some heavy bass by Chi Cheng. Moreno screams this whole song and he sounds awesome overtop, completing this really awesome main riff. He adds a trippy talkbox-like effect in the chorus and with the music staying nice and heavy it's a pretty cool mix. My head was banging hard the whole.way through as they never let up on this one, easily my favourite song so far! Track 5 is "Rx Queen" and Cunningham starts up an interesting drum beat, Cheng follows with some weird bass and Moreno sings softly overtop in this strange riff. The chorus is a heavier version of this riff, but Moreno continues to sing softly overtop and it's another cool quiet-to-loud dynamic. Cunningham plays some really metallic sounding drums towards the end as they move into a long fadeout to end another decent but a little repetitive song. Up next is "Street Carp" and Carpenter leads the way with some cool lead guitar while Chino sings a nice loud verse overtop. The chorus is pretty funny as Chino sings "here's my new address, 664, oh I forget" and then they snap into the next verse. This is a short and repetitive song, but it's a way cooler main riff and it's under three minutes so it's way better than the previous song. Track 7 is "Teenager" and Chino plays a light rhythm guitar riff and Delgado adds some trippy keyboards while Chino sings a nice light verse to match this slow, psychedelic mood. This is a unique departure for Deftones and while it's obviously not a headbanger, they perform it really well and I like this midway through the album. The next track is "Knife Prty" and Carpenter plays some space-y guitar at first before they snap into a heavier, more typical Deftones riff. Chino sings a light verse that somehow fits overtop of both parts and it's another nice quiet-to-loud dynamic. Things flow into a similar chorus and after another round guest Rodleen Getsic adds some female vocals similar to Clare Torry's performance in "The Great Gig in the Sky" and it's an unexpected but pretty cool addition to things. It certainly spices up the latter half of this one. Track 9 is "Korea" and Carpenter plays another cool guitar riff to lead the way while Cheng plays some solid bass as well. The music is nice and heavy and Cbino sings a nice verse before screaming a pretty solid chorus. This pretty much sums up this track, but it's a pretty sweet verse and chorus so you don't mind hearing just it a few times. Up next is "Passenger" and it features vocals by Tool (and now A Perfect Circle) frontman Maynard James Keenan! Delgado starts things off with some trippy keyboards and then a catchy main guitar riff starts up along with a nice drum beat by Cunningham. Chino sings a normal verse for him, and Maynard follows every line of his with one of his own and together they sound pretty cool! Maynard takes the lead on his own soon enough and he sounds pretty good overtop the space-y, epic background that nicely builds somehow into a pretty damn catchy chorus with some great vocals by Maynard! They continue to alternate between quieter, space-y parts, and louder metal parts and both sound pretty good! This is a really cool collaboration and I love how Maynard and Chino work together, a really cool song! Track 11 is the big hit single "Change (In The House Of Flies)" and it has a really slow, but epic and space-y main riff with Delgado playing all kinds of ambient stuff while Chino sings a very soft verse overtop. They snap nicely into a heavy chorus with some cool guitars by Carpenter, then just as nicely they snap out of it and back to the space-y verse. Cbino is almost whispering at times, but things sound pretty epic the whole way through as Deftones once again love to go quiet-to-loud, leaning heavily toward the space-y quiet on this interesting choice for a single. The final song on the album is the seven and a half minute "Pink Maggit" and it's got some super slow, droning guitar notes that echo very epicly while Chino sings a perfect verse to match this pretty psychedelic riff. After almost three minutes of this they finally move into a more typical(ly good) heavier riff and jam that out out for about three minutes. The final minute and a half is back to psychedelic land and the album ends with just the sound of a heart beating. A strange way to end this strange finale.

That is the end of "White Pony" and I thought it was another pretty cool album from Deftones. They continue to to blend atmospheric, space-y parts with heavy metal parts very nicely and Chino Moreno is perfectly suited to sing in both parts. "Elite" was my favourite, but there was lots of good music on this album and I definitely enjoyed it the whole way through. Their last album was also pretty good, and I think it's really close, but I like this newest album a bit more and I give it the #2 spot. It's not as good as their debut "Adrenaline", but it's a pretty cool album that really cemented Deftones as a more mainstream act. Where will they go from here? I'll be here to find out!