Sacramento, CA · alt-metal · shoegaze-metal

Deftones

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The band that dragged heaviness toward dream-pop — Chino Moreno's croon-to-scream over guitars tuned for atmosphere as much as impact.

Deftones formed in Sacramento in 1988 when childhood friends Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter and Abe Cunningham began playing together in Carpenter's garage. Moreno had been drawn to hardcore punk and post-punk acts such as Bad Brains, Depeche Mode and the Cure, while Carpenter leaned toward thrash metal. Chi Cheng joined on bass in 1990, and Frank Delgado's samples and turntables became part of the lineup in 1999.

They emerged alongside the wave of heavy American bands that broke through in the 1990s, but quickly moved somewhere stranger, folding in the textures of shoegaze, post-punk and new wave alongside downtuned riffing. The result is a sound built as much on tone and atmosphere as on force: Moreno shifting between a soft, high croon and a raw scream, Carpenter's low-end guitar layered with washes of effects, and Delgado's samples and keyboards filling the space around them.

The band signed to Maverick Records and released its debut, Adrenaline, in 1995, building a following through heavy touring. Around the Fur followed in 1997 and went platinum, and White Pony in 2000 marked the turn toward the more atmospheric approach the band is now known for; its track 'Elite' won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. A self-titled fourth album reached number two on the Billboard 200 in 2003.

In 2008, while the band worked on material that would become the album Eros, Chi Cheng was left in a minimally conscious state by a car accident; he died of cardiac arrest in 2013. Sergio Vega, formerly of Quicksand, took over on bass afterward and remained in the group until 2021.

Since 2010, Deftones have released five studio albums, among them Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan, Gore, Ohms and Private Music. Albums including Around the Fur, White Pony and Diamond Eyes are widely cited as touchstones by later heavy bands.

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alt-metalshoegaze-metal