private music
If the title of Deftones’ 10th album seems provocative, that’s because it’s supposed to. “I like the exclusivity of the name,” vocalist Chino Moreno tells Apple Music. “It feels restricted, maybe naughty. It has all these connotations. But it was the name of the folder on my desktop where I would put stuff while we were working on all the songs.” Written and recorded over two and a half years in Nashville, Joshua Tree, and Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu, *private music* sees Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham, and keyboardist/turntablist Frank Delgado reteaming with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who helmed their 2010 album *Diamond Eyes* and 2012 album *Koi No Yokan*. The album’s first single and leadoff track, “my mind is a mountain,” came out of a studio jam. “It was one of those songs like ‘Change,’” Carpenter says, referencing the band’s signature tune from 2000’s *White Pony*. “We were just in the room messing around, and it started forming.” “I love the fact that it’s bombastic,” Moreno adds. “There’s a push and pull in that song that I really love. It’s heavy, but the one way that we collectively always describe our band is, no matter what style of music it is, we always like to feel that you can nod your head to it. This song has that head-nod thing.” “i think about you all the time” came out of a quiet moment Moreno had on the beach near Shangri-La. “I remember getting up in the morning, walking down the street, jumping in the ocean, coming back in my swim trunks and sitting there in my bare feet with the guitar and just start playing,” he says. “That night, I made a cup of coffee and said, ‘Nick, let’s record that thing I did this morning.’” “milk of the madonna” is a thunderous Deftones banger, with Moreno’s emotional tenor soaring over the band’s swirling, writhing tempest. “infinite source” was the first song written for the album: Carpenter came up with the original idea in Nashville before he, Moreno, and Cunningham completed it on tour. As Moreno points out, *private music* has staying power. “Nothing feels like it was a snapshot of that time and now we’re in a different place,” he says. “Two and a half years after their inception, the songs still feel very much immediate.”
The gravitational pull of Deftones gets stronger every year. Their 10th album shows them fully in control of their heavy, menacing, instantly recognizable sound.
The NME review of Deftones' 10th album 'Private Music', a reunion with producer Nick Raskulinecz for a direct, soulful and sexy dose of what they do best
Deftones’ greatest strength on Private Music is an ability to cover multiple bases while always sounding unmistakably themselves.
As if a career peak four decades in wasn’t enough, Deftones unleash a top-tier masterpiece on album number 10.
Traversing dark claustrophobia and sprawling soundscapes, beautiful in both is composition and delivery.
As 'Adrenaline', their 1995 debut, fast-approaches 30 this year, the Sacramento four-piece are still finding new corners of their sound to delve into and
Ed Walton reviews the new album by alt metal legends Deftones! Read his review of 'private music' here on Distorted Sound!
Deftones’ Private Music arrives as the band’s long-awaited tenth studio album, carrying with it the weight of expectation built from nearly three decades of powerful records. Known for mixing aggression, atmosphere and vulnerability in equal measure, Deftones have rarely missed the mark. Sadly, this latest release does not live up to their impressive past.