White Pony- Deftones (Shit I should have listened to)

                        

The alternative rock radio station in my hometown played Deftones occasionally, but they preferred to pool their music from Incubus, Chevelle, and Silversun Pickups. After listening to White Pony I’m surprised Deftones weren’t played more, because every damn band on that radio station owed something to the Deftones. Like a more concise version of Tool White Pony is a complex but sleek set of alternative metal tunes that’s as smart as it is heavy.

If comparing them to the Incubus-ish bands the main advantage Deftones hold is that they never let their sound be completely overtaken by one influence. There are plenty of hardcore break downs on White Pony, but there are just as many slow grooves, glitchy samples, and quiet melodic moments. A lot of this is thanks to Chino Moreno’s ever flexible vocal range, going from the straight arena shots of “Knife Prty” to the seductive verses of “RX Queen.” Stephen Carpenter never played guitar with the normal nu metal ideals, instead using its pure power, combing massive and silvery chords with Chi Cheng’s rumbling bass. Abe Cunningham is the star on the instrumental side though; he manages to be slippery yet crushing without ever making a noticeable shift. He’s never flashy but he holds everything together. Cunningham is the main reason that so many of these songs seem massive yet spacy. One second they’re beautifully drifting, the next crashing down with brutal power.

If there are any complaints here it comes from the songs that just go for the straight metal feel. “Elite” and “Korea” are fine but next to the rest of the album they come off as lumbering. “Passenger” has Tool’s Maynard James Keenan taking over on vocals, but it breaks the album’s flow, as Moreno has a different control on his vocals. It’s by no means a bad track, in fact the chorus has great vocals from Keenan, but I would have loved to hear Moreno’s version. But, geez this album is spectacular when it wants to be. The opening one-two punch is what every Alternative Metal band should try to be, guest singer Rodleen Getsic has a jaw dropping feature on “Knife Prty,”and "Change (In the House of Flies)" is one of Deftones’ most popular for a reason. The two best tracks are “RX Queen” and “Teenager” for completely different reasons. “RX Queen” holds the album’s best riff, a murky and unsettling beast of a line that holds the song’s alternatively sexy and threatening vibe together. “Teenager” is the album’s most beautiful and stands as one of Deftones’ most gorgeous songs, along with "Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event,” its hazy guitar sampling allows Moreno to deliver a tender vocal line that’s spine-tingling. For all the shit that nü-metal gave us in the early 2000s we did get some absolute stunners. White Pony might have been a single gem in a massive pile of rubble, but damn was it worth it.

Rating: B+