Diamond Eyes - Deftones Review

It has been more than a year since Chi Cheng’s car accident that landed him in a coma. Since then, he has been semi-conscious and undergoing treatments. Amidst the unfortunate event, the remaining members of Deftones recruited former Quicksand bassist, Sergio Vega as a substitute for their sixth full-length album, Diamond Eyes.

Radio single and title song Diamond Eyes sent me into a daze on my first listening. I know I had to hear more from the new album. It certainly serves as a good start to another outstanding accomplishment. The chorus shows a concept from White Pony (2000) and a listen to the whole album will make you agree on that. They recorded without using Pro Tools and it adds a raw feel to it.

Tracklists:

1. "Diamond Eyes" 3:08
2. "Royal" 3:32
3. "CMND/CTRL" 2:25
4. "You've Seen the Butcher" 3:31
5. "Beauty School" 4:47
6. "Prince" 3:36
7. "Rocket Skates" 4:14
8. "Sextape" 4:01
9. "Risk" 3:38
10. "976–EVIL" 4:32
11. "This Place Is Death" 3:48

Cunningham, Delgado, Moreno, Vega and Carpenter

Rocket Skates was initially the band’s first single. It was made available for free download through their MySpace page earlier in February. There are many memorable tunes in here, like You’ve Seen the Butcher, Beauty School, Sextape, Risk etc. Each of those songs gives a strong feeling of gloom though it does give away kind of steamy sensation with Chino Moreno’s croon buttered throughout Diamond Eyes. There isn’t much aggression and hate to complain about and Moreno mentioned in an interview, “The songs on the album do not feature songs about complaining, hurting, or how life sucks".

This is one of their best releases since 2000. Buy or steal, I highly recommend you to listen. Perhaps you might feel a bit empty and lost without Cheng in it. It is a brave move to continue without him. For the first time their line-up changed. Nonetheless, I can see hope in Cheng waking up again. He is after all progressing well towards recovery. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see the light of Eros sooner than later.