Of all the bands to emerge from the mid-90s nu metal scene, Deftones were the most adventurous. Nine albums in, that forward motion hasn’t abated.
Ohms is instantly familiar without replicating anything they’ve done before. The familiarity comes from Chino Moreno’s shape-shifting vocals, flipping from a whisper to a digital scream on Genesis and Ceremony. But the backdrops against which they’re set provide a different iteration of the Sacramento band’s sound.
Dream pop with metallic edges is still the default setting, but there’s a lot going on within that bandwith: Urantia could pass as a pop song, were it not for the interruption of Stephan Carpenter’s breeze-block guitars; This Link Is Dead is four and a half minutes of distorted noise punctuated by brief sunbursts of melody; the album’s highlight, Pompeji, is an apocalyptic soundscape that switches between moments of both bliss and fury.
None of this is a major reinvention, but then Deftones have always been about big steps rather than giant leaps. And even then the rest of the field remains way behind them.
