DeftonesTitle: Saturday Night WristLabel: MaverickGenre: RockReleased: October 31, 2006Rating: * * * * 1/2
Perennial power-rockers Deftones are back with their Oct. 31 release of Saturday Night Wrist, their most abstract but unusally catchiest album yet. Twelve brooding tracks showcase front man Chino Moreno’s dynamic voice screaming and whispering over punishing riffs and ambient synth lines. It’s been a long wait for the new Deftones record, but it looks like it was worth it.
Now let’s backtrack to the 2000 Deftones release White Pony, what many would consider to be their best album. Besides thrusting them into the mainstream, the album marked a distinct change from their previous works.
Instead of guitar riff over riff and death metal screams, the album took a much softer approach with the use of keyboards. And Chino settles down to croon about lost innocence and helplessness, like in the tracks “Teenager” and “Change (In The House of Flies).”
The metal was still there, albeit in a sleeker and more appealing package. The year 2003 was marked by the release of their self-titled album and a promise by the guys in Deftones that it was a return to their more signature, brutal sound.
The album was nothing special, though it did contain a few fan favorites like “Minerva” and “Bloody Cape.”
Now fast forward to 2006 through Chino’s 2005 side project Team Sleep and potential talks of the band breaking up, and you’ve got “Saturday Night Wrist.
Their new album doesn’t sound unlike a mixture between Team Sleep and some of the Deftone’s earlier albums, like Adrenaline or Around The Fur. And as most fans of the Deftones and Chino’s work would know, that isn’t a particularly bad thing.
It isn’t uncommon to have punishing guitars and drums with Chino’s growls, as in the song “Combat.” Right before “Combat” is the insanely random “Pink Cellphone,” with howling special effects and a girl ranting about anal sex and the cause of British people’s bad teeth.
“Hole in the Earth” is the first single off the album and perhaps the catchiest. “Mein” features guest vocals from System of a Down’s Serj Tankian. “Beware” ends with a punishing breakdown, heavy enough to quiet those who say Deftones have softened or lost their edge. “Kimdracula” features one of their cooler riffs in a while, and builds and builds for the epic closer, “Riviere.”
It is an easy listen though, with heavier tracks outnumbering the softer by about two songs. Chino’s voice has never sounded better, often switching between singing and his high-pitched scream in songs throughout the album.
Out of the bands from of the 90s nu-metal obsession, Deftones have been able to show that they have the staying power the others lacked. And with their new album, it sounds like they don’t have plans of going anywhere for a while.
