album of the week: 12.1

Deftones
Koi No Yokan
(2012)

why you'll love it: Strong second half, "Tempest" is one of their best songs

why you'll hate it: dull and uninspired first half.  No evolution.


The usually on fire Deftones run warm on yet another 2012 release that I had high hopes for.  This isn't to say this band has forgotten how to make eye-widening epic songs.  It just starts off on the wrong foot.  There seems to be two perceptions of what Deftones is.  Many people who are only somewhat familiar with the group see them as a holdover from the laughable nu-metal scene of the late 90's.  I see them as an intelligent group of musicians that use metal and hardcore influences with shoegaze and ambience to create big emotionally driven songs.

Songs on this album like "Swerve CIty" and "Poltergeist" are an example of that first perception.  They're little more than a generic heavy riff;  with dull sound and fury signifying nothing.  "Romantic Dreams" and "Entombed" sound more like the "secret love song band" that I see them as, but with some eye-rolling clichéd and on-the-nose lyrics that sour the whole deal.  Of the first half of the album, "Leathers" is the only song I like, and even that feels a bit like the band is just going through the motions.

"Graphic Nature" is where Koi No Yokan truly begins for me.  It's got that strange off-kilter alternative riff and time signature that I loved in songs off their 2003 self-titled album; and the strange and somewhat dangerous metaphors for love and sex found in the album that put them on the map, White Pony (2000).  Followed immediately by that is one of my favorite songs of the year, "Tempest".  This right here is Deftones at their best.  They use their strengths to build, and suppress, until they deliver a swell that cracks the heavens and makes you want to raise your arms into the air as if possessed.

Songs just like "Tempest" are what populated my favorite Deftones album, Saturday Night Wrist (2006).  After the mostly concrete hardened Diamond Eyes (2010), I was really expecting the band to return to a more euphoric sound.  Instead, Koi No Yokan kinda feels neither here nor there.  The second (good) half of this album only seems to test the waters that Saturday Night Wrist dove right into.  The last four songs are good.  I enjoy "Rosemary" most of all, and the humble closer "What Happened To You?"  It's just not as jaw-dropping and it all once was.  Maybe Chino's work with ††† has drank Deftones' milkshake, as far as experimental electronic and ambiance goes.

Forgiving the rough start, Deftones is still a band that must be given a chance by everyone.  A true example of "Don't judge a book by its cover."  Even when the songs are a bit lackluster, the compositions are admirable.  And Chino's voice, still after all these years, is a marvel.  To use every last molecule of air in your body pouring out a yell, then sound utterly angelic in the next minute… I just don't know how he does it.  Even with a middle of the road album, that is what I keep coming back for.  And I'm still glad they do it, after all their hardships.  Hey, if you don't buy this album, maybe leave a holiday donation for Chi Cheng or something?