Disclaimer
I wasn’t born when Adrenaline came out. If that alone disqualifies me from talking about Deftones’ music, you wasted 7 seconds and no more. Thank you for clicking.
Now, I plead guilty to being a recent addition to the Deftones fanbase, only having been actively listening for at most a couple of years. As my prefrontal cortex was in tumultuous development, I was also gaining a better understanding of my tastes in music and why certain sounds resonated more than others. One of the insights gained in the transition to fully developed human was that I gravitate towards acts with deep male vocals. Before you revoke my woke card, the preference leans heavily towards pathetic, whiny, sultry and even androgynous. Not looking any deeper into that can of psych worms, this preference merged with my lifelong liking of full bodied, heavier instrumentals. Despite this biological predisposition, I didn’t take to Deftones at first. They were too much like Korn and Limp Bizkit in my mind, two acts I wasn’t interested in at all (at the time).
Skipping ahead to about the age of 26, I was deep in a surprising Nine Inch Nails obsession (another artist I almost physically recoiled from as a teenager) and was surprised that even Korn improved on a second offered chance. So, maybe Deftones could be more than a band for the man child in cargo shorts?
Yeah, I guess. I liked them. I knew the hits, could listen and enjoy songs I didn’t know, and if asked, I would have said I like Deftones. But I wasn’t engaging with their music, themes, lyrics, whatever. I’m still not sure I do. But I appreciate the way the band’s sound remains identifiable, while songs range from horny and pathetic to angry and defeated. Moreno’s voice is capable and excellent at what I call whisper moaning; he screams without being cringe (something that Limp Bizkit’s lead could never) and growls without that condescending energy that annoys the crap out of me in TOOL.
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Albums, generally
Recently, I started listening to full albums, which I have never done before and considered the utmost expression of snobbery. Only people who made you name three albums listened to whole albums and, in my best playlist life, I could have a song tattooed on my forehead and not be able to name the record it’s on. I suppose it’s a result of growing up in the decades when every song was on demand. I began pirating individual mp3s of songs I heard on TV, got Spotify the second I figured out how to use a VPN (the app wouldn’t be launched in Romania until 2018) and began my journey of not listening to a single full album for about 10 years.
Before you think me a complete dilettante, I will also remind you that growing up with your dad’s vinyl or CD collection is contingent on your dad having the money and interest for such a hobby. My familial holdings consisted of some 20-30 cassette tapes of which a bootlegged Songs of faith and devotion is the only one worth mentioning. Listening to a full record was never part of my culture (or DNA, for that matter).
In the intervening years, arguments for the album have been submitted, reviewed, and accepted. I saw the light and heard the album.
Now, about the new Deftones
I noticed edgelords complaining about the lack of capitalisation in the titles, how it’s a ploy to appeal to gen z aesthetic nihilism. It seems to me that, if this style of typing fits a genre, it's exactly Deftones’ brand of alternative metal. They have been pioneering the kind of resignation towards seething feelings that no capitals exude for 30 years.
While it’s true that it is very much in their style, private music also feels contemporary. With this release, I believe we’re finally seeing an alternative record that doesn’t get by solely on being genre referential and nostalgic, while also not being obstinately experimental, pitfalls which encompass most other alternative albums of the past couple of years. Deftones do what they do best, while also being current and relevant, which is a tight rope to balance on.
private music starts with a banger. But I knew that, because they released my mind is a mountain as a teaser some weeks before, in the hype mechanism that the streaming platform has our collective insides twisted in. I am only half complaining. This is a record for 2025 – it doesn’t look back to the golden age of alternative metal, it’s not telling me “Hey, remember Change? This song is supposed to remind you of it”. It’s polished without being overly produced, while perhaps less edgy than their classics. The vocals are more mature and less pathetic than usual (not a critique, I love men who sound like they’re about to cry).
I would echo other reviews in calling this record ethereal, but I’m placing it somewhere midway between whimsical and grandiose. Others call it derivative: if you like Deftones, you will like this record. It’s true that it brings together themes and tunes the band has explored before, but I’d say that has more to do with a solid artistic identity in a world where artists reinvent their sound constantly a la King Gizzard or are unsure how to handle their own legacy like Linkin Park with their 2024 release, From Zero.
Well, I like Deftones, and I like this record. As a final thought, I would flip the narrative and say If you like private music, you will like Deftones.
Name three albums
And for the final proof that I have the right to yap on the internet, we’re doing the challenge of a true fan. Now, I’m not a musician or producer, I don’t even mop floors at a recording studio, so who am I to name an album, let alone three? But not being qualified for something has never stopped me before, so here goes:
1. Banging with no filling
2. Apparatus
3. Please feed me
