Thursday, May 15, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Music: Heavy is as heavy does

Deftones lead the space-metal charge

Brock Radke

Last year, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes was quoted in a magazine saying if Elvis fans instead listened to Johnny Cash and Rolling Stones fans instead listened to the Velvet Underground, the world would be a much better place.

Well, when it comes to the smaller but louder world of aggressive modern rock, it's safe to say everyone would be much better off if all the kids with backwards hats whose introductions to music were based on Limp Bizkit would have listened, instead, to Deftones.

It's also safe to say that several of the bands set to take the stage at KXTE 107.5-FM's Our Big Concert 6 at Sam Boyd Stadium Saturday would list Deftones as an influence. And it's also safe to say that Madonna and the rest of the folks with a stake in Maverick Records are hoping the band's fourth album, self-titled and set for release Tuesday, will find as much commercial success as all those heavy rock bands that are so heavily influenced by the Sacramento-born quintet.

"That stuff is not really important," says Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, sounding sleepy from Boston, just before the third in a short string of late-notice, packed-house shows. "All that influences stuff is very flattering, and anyone who says otherwise is lying because it's very complimentary. But it's not something that's constantly with us. I don't think anyone can replicate what we do, not even us."

If they could do it over again, or if they wanted to, Cheng and bandmates Stephen Carpenter (guitars), Abe Cunningham (drums), Frank Delgado (turntables and effects) and Chino Moreno (vocals) might just release another White Pony, the acclaimed 2000 album that spawned the monster hit "Change (In the House of Flies)" and won Deftones a Grammy. But, as Cheng says, the band is only interested in a musical evolution of sorts, and success is defined by a sense of accomplishment not dictated by album sales and radio play.

"We feel now that our happiness depends only on the music we create and how happy we are with each album," he says. "And I'm happy with this one."

The album has been kept tightly under wraps, with lead single "Minerva" hitting radio a few weeks back. The band was so adamant about keeping the new material to itself that it played only old stuff during recent tour dates in Australia to avoid live versions of new songs showing up on the Internet.

Various rock media outposts have guessed the new recordings would move back toward a harsher, aggressive sound reminiscent of the band's first two albums and further from the lush atmospherics that characterized White Pony. But "Minerva" sounds like more of the same, with crashing waves of guitar depth, a buzzsaw rhythm from Cheng and Cunningham and Moreno's trademark over-emotive singing.

"It's been scary as hell" to play the new stuff, says Cheng. "The shows so far have been great, but we know we can do better. The kids coming out are having a great time, though, I think."

As laidback as he is, Cheng, a Zen Buddhist and poet, doesn't have much to say when it comes to details on the new record.

"It's a Deftones record, so there is some heavy shit on it. It's cool. We're excited about it. I mean, yeah, there is some shit on there that's pretty heavy, and that was intentional. But there are elements of that [more melodic] stuff there too. It runs the whole gamut. I think there's always an element of melody in every track, no matter how heavy it gets."