6.9.00
With a June 20th release date that seems to have next to no significance (since everyone on the planet has their own version of the CD already), you can bet that Deftones will go on record as the Summer of 2000’s most anticipated, and heavily-rotated new release. And with good reason Just as everyone predicted, our beloved Deftones have returned with a vengeance that has been contained and controlled within the confines of their recording studio, and now they’ve been unleashed.
This is perhaps their best effort to date, and although many bands don’t triumph over the energy of their first or even their second creations, ‘White Pony‘ takes the listener by the hand down a whole new path in the band’s respective careers. The landscape of the latest episode in the emotional Deftones story is one of lush, velvety, to-the-deepest-depths red at one moment; and at others, the paint bleeds into a blue-black ink that stains your thought process for a very long time. Amazing.
The story opens with slow, deliberate foreplay by means of ‘Fieticeira’ and ‘Digital Bath’, and then screams into an emo-industrial masterpiece with ‘Elite’ and ‘RX Queen’. There is so much creativity and emotional substance behind what has been produced here, that it’s almost too much to take in at one sitting.
If ‘White Pony’ were an art gallery, there would be more to see and feel than one person could handle. This music invokes emotions on a level that most would only feel on hallucinogenic drugs. Give ‘Knife Party’ a spin if you need clarification on this point. The metaphoric imagery here is stunning.
Chino Moreno is reaching new heights vocally with ‘White Pony’. His sweetness and vulnerability comes through on this collection of songs more than ever before. And just as soon as you’re swooning over that, he morphs into the angry, bludgeoning monster in your nightmares. (See ‘Korea’.) That signature whisper through the megaphone that has all but defined the true Deftones ‘sound’ reappears and dissolves, too.
The band pushes themselves to the outer limits on several of the tracks, and they never let up once. They have incorporated electronics in the most gorgeous of ways, and have still have managed to maintain the familiar style and sound that brings everyone home if we stray a little. ‘Passenger’ is a good example of that, with a silky smooth contribution from Maynard James Keenan of Tool and A Perfect Circle thrown in for texture.
With the chosen single being ‘Change (In The House of Flies)’, much mention of its’ greatness is hardly necessary. However, this is probably the most symbolic track on the CD. This one hits home for just about everyone, on a lot of levels. And then there is that certain something about a Deftones song that just makes you so incredibly sad inside. Take the final track, ‘Pink Maggit’ for instance. Personally, it crushed me and made me euphoric simultaneously. Music that is capable of causing that type of human reaction in anyone possesses frightening power.
If you haven’t already burned a hole through your ‘ripped’ or ‘burned’ copies of ‘White Pony, and even if you have; be sure to purchase this CD when it’s released on June 20th. There is something extraordinary that you will be missing in your CD libraries if you don’t have this one in it, and guaranteed, you will feel the loss. Mark your calendars. It’s definitely the year of the Pony.
Favorite tracks:
Elite
RX Queen
Knife Party
Change
Pink Maggit
Extra special thanks to Heidi at Maverick, and to the parents of all the Deftones members for birthing them.
Lesa Pence
