Retrospective: Deftones, “Diamond Eyes”

“Retrospective” is an occasional entry that reviews some of the best albums you’re likely to hear.

Today’s Album of the Day is Diamond Eyes.

Released in 2010, it was Deftones first album in almost 4 years – mostly due to scrapping an entire album’s worth of material because of the late Chi Cheng’s serious car accident.

Hailed as the best Deftones album since White Pony, the opening one-two punch of the title track and “Royal” will surely knock you on your back – just as much as track 5, “Beauty School”, will put you at ease with the world. There’s standout tracks everywhere – the hyper aggressive “Rocket Skates” certainly qualifies – but it’s the sludgy, Kyuss-inspired “You’ve Seen the Butcher” that really takes the cake.

Especially in the heavier tracks, you can tell that guitarist Stephen Carpenter has been listening to Meshuggah quite a bit, while Chino Moreno hones his always solid vocals to a razor-sharp shine. Abe Cunningham proves his dexterity on tracks like the aforementioned “Beauty School”, and Sergio Vega and Frank Delgado round out the band – the former being Quicksand’s former bass player who fills the shoes of Chi Cheng, and the latter who provides the important soundscapes and textures that make tracks like “This Place Is Death” so memorable.

Nobody does the “heavy and soft” thing better than Deftones. And Diamond Eyes is certainly on par with White Pony. In fact…give it a few listens and it could be better.

Diamond quality, indeed.