Deftones- Gore (2016)

Deftones- Gore (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

For a short time in the 90s, it looked like Death Metal was about to become the next big thing, bands like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Decide had somehow managed to capture a growing audience, and it seemed that they would be able to catch an even bigger audience riding a wave of backlash against decadent pop / glam metal, audiences were tired of power ballads and hairspray, bands like Death, Sepultura and Obituary made drastic changes in their sound in order to apply a similar strategy to that of Thrash bands like Metallica or Megadeth.

The spotlight was then stolen by a little known band from Seattle with a great debut on Seattle's Sub Pop, and a drastically different major label debut, those death metal bands reached new audiences excited by just a part of their sound, perhaps the satanic, gory, death obsessed approach was not so appealing, a part of Nirvana's Nevermind charms were the loud / quiet dynamics (created by groups like The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. years before without successful), a duality that prompted the death metal sound of a band like Sepultura to adopt those dynamics among other things, and the rest you know it, nu metal was born.

Many bands jumped on the Nu Metal wagon, just like in grunge, few of them survived the genre's 15 minutes of fame, Korn, Coal Chamber and Deftones, the ones who wisely fleshed their sound with a wide range of interesting elements.

I seriously believe that Deftones' most relevant element is Chino Moreno's vocal approach, going from really beautiful angelic like, to really frightening shrieking screams, Moreno really exemplifies what the Deftones are capable of doing, add to that total wide range guitar, either with killer riffs or building atmospherics in a really integrating ways.

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Gore, their most recent recording is definitely one of their most interesting yet, it's quite superior to the previous to, Gore successful dwells in the incongruous, they can at times evoke gorgeous sounds from the new wave and from post punk, and next they play brutal hardcore tinged electronic trip hop, Crazy? Of course, that's what the Deftones are about, also we should notice Moreno's obsession with Morrissey here is set completely free.

Along with Moreno's obsession, another things comes to my mind while listening to Gore and that is the amazing guitar work Stephen Carpenter is displaying here, perhaps his best in year, despite rumors that Carpenter wasn't a 100% convinced of the musical concept behind this record, well, without Carpenter commitment, I seriously doubt that a monster like opener Prayers/Triangles could be conceived, just check out his disconcerting opening riffs, his atmospheric guitar lines and those beast like brutal riffs he applies in order to let Moreno fly free.

Frank Delgado's significant touch is amply felt on Acid Hologram, a beautiful dark tune perfectly drawn by Carpenter, with a great emphatic vocal work by Moreno, in a really emotional vein that shows greatly the epic schizophrenia this band is capable of projecting with such ease, in a short tune with far reaches, and then taking us suddenly to the other extreme on the painful Doomed User, with Sergio Vega's monstrous descending bass lines, Carpenter abrasive guitars and Abe Cunningham blown out drumming.

All along Gore there are great tunes here and there, check out the spy like menacing grooves of Geometric Headdress, the almost death metal growl of Pittura Infamante and the great fluid metallic roaming of Xenon, with Moreno paying perhaps an involuntary homage to Mike Patton, who by the way, felt a little sorry for his band Faith No More being a fundamental influence on Nu Metal, but Patton shouldn't feel sorry for pioneering and paving the way for such great bands like the Deftones, who with Gore under their arms, are once again all over the map, throwing at us unexpected tunes after another, in a truly disconcerting way, leaving the listener a bit puzzled, but at the same tine fascinated by the kaleidoscopic world Moreno and company have been able to create.