It has been five years since the release of Deftones’ last album, Ohms, and now they have released the long-awaited successor. However, a question still looms over the listener’s mind. How good is it, and how does it compare to their earlier, critically acclaimed, albums?

The past few months have been quite exciting for Deftones fans, with two singles and a pre-save for a new album being shared across social media and music streaming sites. Lead single, My Mind is a Mountain, begins with a bang, attacking the listener with the classic heavy-dreamy mix that listeners expect from a Deftones album. The chorus of the song keeps the energy going, building until a tranquil bridge in which the full band locks in to make a final push towards the end of the song. 

The next few tracks on the album blend together into a ball of aggressive, shoegaze-inspired, musicality until the song Infinite Source. Infinite Source starts with one of the coolest drum and bass grooves in recent music memory before hitting a mini-explosion as the lyrics come in. All these great verse parts eventually develop into a banging chorus that feels as if it was ripped right out of a 90’s Hum album. The rest of the album essentially follows this Deftones formula with one key exception, I Think About You All The Time. 

I Think About You All The Time is a slow ballad about how the band will never change and how much they enjoy doing what they do. The lyric “All of my life, we’ll never change” stands out to me as it paints a picture of what Deftones is. They are a band that seems to have not a single care about their critical and professional acclaim, still going by their old processes and having fun playing the music. 

All in all, this album is not a very original album but it is definitely one of the Deftones best in recent years. The past few Deftones albums it felt as though they have tried to expand past their niche into a slower, atmospheric rock band, but in this new LP, they have gotten back into the groove that made so many first-time listeners fall in love.