At one stage, in a moment of dumb ambition, I had planned to attempt to rank all 100 Deftones songs from their nine studio albums, especially given how round a number this presented. This idea faded not only due to the size of the undertaking but also the realisation that after wading beyond the very upper tier of their music, the task becomes impossible by virtue of quality and consistency. Like many of Chino Moreno’s romantic heroes such as The Cure and The Smiths, the band have penned nary a dud across their three decades and those nine records, which also made picking out a top twenty especially tough, such that their sole Grammy win for Best Metal Performance (“Elite”) doesn’t make my cut, for example.
With Moreno on vocals and rhythm guitars, one of my all-time faves in Stephen Carpenter on guitars, Chi Cheng on bass prior to his tragic and untimely death and replacement with Sergio Vega from 2009 onwards, Abe Cunningham on drums and Frank Delgado on keys, turntables and electronics (since 1999), the band have helmed an all-timer of a discography which has transcended genres and generations, with sizeable numbers continuing to be recruited into their legions of fans to this day. Let’s run through my top twenty countdown.
20. “Battle-Axe”
From “Deftones” (2003)
There are no shortage of epically structured Deftones tracks, but this song’s edge in a packed field starts with its haunting earworm of an opening riff, which forever lurks in my psyche, and continues with the fact that rarely are the chugga-chugga moments laced quite as potently with all of the aerodynamism of sea-spray. In combination, we end up with a soaring space metal concoction par excellence, an underrated diamond on an oft-overlooked record, and one which narrowly pips the equally titanic later number “Tempest” into my ranking.
19. “Engine No. 9”
From “Adrenaline” (1995)
From 1995’s critical nu-metal document “Adrenaline”, this barnstormer represents Deftones at their most twisted, with riffs balanced between the steamrolling and the slicing, and one of Moreno’s most frenzied, frantic vocal displays. Often the lyrics, such as they are, are hurled as much yelped, especially in the splenetic build to the second hook. From the scat-worthy shout-a-longs to the fixedly wound, chugging car-crash metal bleeding forth from the speakers in bountiful gushes, comparisons to those other California genre titans rattle around, which is more than worthy company.
18. “Be Quiet & Drive (Far Away)”
From “Around The Fur” (1997)
Sometimes the finest tracks on a record are its big singles, no matter how good the album is. So it is with the twin parentheses-bearing pillars of 1997’s “Around The Fur”, which also double as two sides of the same coin. “Be Quiet & Drive (Far Away)” is the good cop in this scenario, one of their most resilient and triumphant numbers, with a celebratory sound which is no less muscular and cutting to the touch for it, like barbed-wire party streamers. The whitest of white-knuckle thrills can be located in hearing the way Carpenter leads his guitar mechanics through controlled unspooling in the late bridge, a marvellous sleight of hand, or the way he lets his axe truly fly for an instrumental refrain. As so often, throttling momentum is the order of the day, including lyrically; call it the biggest of dubs in converting concept into sound.
17. “Genesis”
From “Ohms” (2020)
“Ohms” may be the most consistent Deftones album, struggling to yield standouts by sheer virtue of the fact it is comprised of a veteran band churning out ten legacy bangers seemingly without breaking a sweat. That said, the opening cut “Genesis” takes pride of place for introductory energy, guitar power and the cavernous, binary vocals we’ve grown to expect from Chino. The source of the track’s considerable glow is thus a reliability and comfort, if such words can really be used to describe such a seismic alt-metal fireball, in which a band displays a mastery of tension and release that few ever reach.
16. “My Own Summer (Shove It)”
From “Around The Fur” (1997)
As alluded to previously, “My Own Summer (Shove It)” is the evil twin of the two mega-singles from “Around The Fur”, both of which rank near the ceiling of the entire nu-metal genre’s output. From the album-opening clatter of Cunningham’s steely rolls, the devil is in the exponential build-up, initially the twist of Carpenter’s chords the first time the riff turns ferocious, followed by Moreno’s throat-shredding howls the second time it does so. It’s a riff which has scarcely aged in three decades, and sounds every inch the jukebox monster, pouring forth in sinuous, serpentine form. The lyrics are late 90s creep poetry of the finest order, encased in impenetrable amber which even the murderous skyrocketing into the final chorus can never hope to crack.
15. “Beware”
From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)
In my estimation, “Beware” is an underrated tune, packed with delicious elements from the moment it kicks in with a kinetic fuzz. The template is classic Deftones, with melodiously enticing guitar lines gliding through the verses towards a cacophonous hook on which Moreno has rarely sounded as vocally impactful, but there are bonus points for the bridge with the sound of chirping frogs as a percussive extra. After the second chorus the track morphs into a suite, with a second bridge previewing the song’s hammering coda and the vortex of guitars increasingly thickening. When that epilogue is ultimately dropped it comes down like an anvil, one of the band’s heaviest moments, with a pulverising groove-metal riff pushing the readings into the red.
14. “Swerve City”
From “Koi No Yokan” (2012)
“Swerve City” explodes out of the blocks with serious intent, but for a band plenty prone to being seduced by a dose of grandiosity it nonetheless comes off as an exercise in concision, not to mention hookiness, sporting a curtain-calling runtime for the 2012 “Koi No Yokan” album of 2:45. It’s certainly there for a good time and not a long one, lathering its deepest of yo-yoing grooves in festival-ready sheen, with an irresistible “woah-woah” chorus paired to seismograph-bothering riffage. The record finds the band firmly settled into their revival period with Sergio Vega on bass, characterised by breathtakingly precise aural architecture and sublime sound whether space-bound or buried six feet deep, and this cut has it all in microcosm. Ratchet up the volume.
13. “Bored”
From “Adrenaline” (1995)
Deftones occupied the upper echelons of nu-metal as we know, prior to transcending and outlasting the genre’s peak. Any elite nu-metal act needs a career mission statement as an opening gambit; you can rank “Bored” alongside “Blind”, “Papercut” “(sic)” and “Suite-Pee”. When that riff first peers around the corner it sounds flat-out mean, before the divebombing chords graze away the skin on full contact. Even 30 years ago, track zero bears many of the group’s hallmarks, between Cunningham’s machine-gun kit work, Moreno’s desperation, Carpenter’s love of subtly rephased lines and hard stops as well as an eye for swirling hook-backers and killer breakdowns, and the voyeuristic creeping of Chi Cheng’s bass, which would swiftly evolve into roomier sensibilities. One to watch!
12. “Digital Bath”
From “White Pony” (2000)
In textural terms, “Digital Bath” flaunts the supercharged production and electronicised sound which would cause comparisons to Radiohead to abound, as both bands moved into the new millennium at their most forward-thinking. The seething power surges of Carpenter’s guitar attack already scythe through the dense atmospherics, but the squawk signposting the biggest overdrive of all, after the central eye-of-the-storm segment which is one of the group’s most capricious and tranquilising at once, truly ushers in a maelstrom apex. Like all of “White Pony”, the defining characterisation of the song is as an exemplar of a band moving into a new chapter, and gloriously glowing up on the way through.
11. “Sextape”
From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)
“Sextape” sees the band at their horniest, not particularly a rarity though often missed, but also their most shimmering, which speaks heavily to the many dualities the band encompass. It has now long stood as a career highlight, with Moreno on mesmerising form and the accompanying music impeccable, inducing an overwhelming nostalgia, sadness and bliss at once in an intoxicating compound. While the cosmic dust-drives we expect from a Deftones chorus are present they are slightly more restrained than elsewhere, but still brilliantly evoke a clattering sundown of almost impossible scale. While the same would go for practically any song on this list, something about the magic contained here would make it very tough to dispute as their finest moment, regardless of my ranking. It is pristine and indelible, a truly scared totem.
10. “Kimdracula”
From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)
At first glance, “Kimdracula” is ‘just’ standardly brilliant Deftones fare, a great track on a great record, marked by watertight song construction and a stellar trademark Moreno chorus. What pushes it as high as the top ten is the breakdown, which features probably my favourite Carpenter riff ever. After that second chorus, we meet unadulterated rocket fuel as the guitarist uncorks a howitzer, invoking a Meshuggah-esque sludge-storm. When the riff returns at the closure it is rhythmically offset by an altered drum-line from Cunningham, which keeps the replay value of the original breakdown extremely high forever more.
9. “Phantom Bride”
From “Gore” (2016)
“Phantom Bride”, registering as late as 2016’s refined collection “Gore”, evidences a band with some tricks still hidden up the sleeve. With a ticking, translucent, panoramic riff to play over, Moreno is front and centre on a technicolour track with the glisten and gleam of crushed gemstones. Alice In Chains wizard Jerry Cantrell steps in on guest duty, lending refractory pyrotechnics in the form of a catherine-wheeling guitar solo, a white rabbit in the Deftones catalogue, and one of the best such free-formers of the 2010s. The lyrics scan as if written directly for me, rendering every listen devastatingly powerful, while the finale enters the frame to hang in the sky overhead like a swarm of bomber jets.
8. “Passenger”
From “White Pony” (2000)
Unsurprisingly for those in the know, once Maynard James Keenan comes to feature on late “White Pony” standout “Passenger”, he lingers imposingly over the proceedings. While unmistakably still sounding like a Carpenter composition, the song takes on some of the structural and aesthetic qualities of a Tool movement, to nobody’s discouragement. Keenan’s vocals are as incredible as ever, and lyrical matters again absorb the energy and angle of his chief band; decidedly mystical, utterly memorably and quite possibly vulgar. In the closing stages we hear the whole thing beautifully settle like small volcanic pools, always threatening to rupture, and doing so in the shape of titanium-coated progressions. It’s a true dream link-up in every sense.
7. “Hole In The Earth”
From “Saturday Night Wrist” (2006)
Most Deftones cuts don’t need a direct lyrical reference or indeed a titular nod to hint in the direction of being struck by a meteor; to say nothing of their always visceral, bulky low end, Carpenter can achieve the effect alone with his multitude of strings. The opening track of 2006’s “Saturday Night Wrist” leans into it anyway, and then some, hitting the jackpot aurally with some of the band’s most gargantuan moshpit-openers. The way the choruses crash in with a stuttering, head-smashing topline riff is self-explanatory, but the track pulls double duty as something of a rosetta stone for deciphering the recipe behind just how beautiful their music can be; the key resides in the way Moreno’s vocals pan around semi-obscured in the lengthy, dreamy build to the song’s zenith, where the teased final hook gives way to a djent-flavoured flamethrower riff and some of Cunningham’s most hyperactive drumming.
6. “You’ve Seen The Butcher”
From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)
For my money, the “Diamond Eyes” album is the closest contender to the “White Pony” throne, and misses that mark by mere inches. Credit producer Nick Raskulinecz for perhaps perfecting the space-metal side of their sound and imbuing it with neutron star density. “You’ve Seen The Butcher” traverses a vast and seemingly endless soundscape, and I thoroughly enjoy lyrical references to explosions matching up with the achievement of the same effect on the sonic side, somewhere out in the distance of this auditory universe. This album’s arrival was concurrent with the final episodes of the TV phenomenon “Lost”, and in my mind they have thus always intermingled in the nexus point between natural occurrences and mystique, between untapped, unexplained power and the tangibility of human life, like all of the finest sludge metal. I mean, if you need power and harmonics, just give this chorus a spin.
5. “Rosemary”
From “Koi No Yokan” (2012)
“Rosemary” is another of the very finest amongst a long list of Deftones exhibitions providing a total masterclass in dynamics; some simply had to miss out on this list (with apologies to “Beauty School” and “Hearts/Wires”). Commencing from a start point of some of their warmest, most spacious and most intergalactic melodic work right from that chiming outset, alongside stoned bass defined by desert-rock thickness, we build up tantalisingly to Carpenter’s setting off of a guitar landslide with a crush-depth that would make prime Mastodon proud. Resultingly, few of the band’s hooks scrape the sky as high as the life-affirming ballistics offered up here, and the basking comedowns are luscious to a fault. An absolute lawnmower riff into a drop-dead gorgeous coda provides the false finish.
4. “Change (In The House Of Flies)”
From “White Pony” (2000)
Terry Date became synonymous with the Deftones sound for his production of their earliest albums, and cuts like this are among the strongest testaments as to why. Against stiff competition, the transition from verse into second chorus here towers as one of the most ground-shaking launch points in the Deftones discog, and that’s for a band who have made exit velocity a calling card. Why it sounds that much more earth-shattering than the first such segue remains a loveable mystery. Add in a canyon-sized chorus and some of the most memorable fills of Cunningham’s oeuvre during the tornado of a climax and you are still only halfway to describing what makes this genuine crossover success one of the most beloved and iconic songs amongst fans.
3. “Minerva”
From “Deftones” (2003)
If “Change” has one of the foremost mortar-like liftoffs in the canon, “Minerva” boasts several. The lead song from the self-titled album achieves utter perfection in showcasing what the band do so superbly and doesn’t so much co-opt loud-quiet dynamics the way Kurt Cobain did from Pixies as run them through a process comparable to the jump from the A-bomb to warheads. The track’s otherwise sleek exterior, in the form of paradoxically liquid, sand-snaking melodics which move under cover of darkness, is pockmarked with its blast radiuses, so violently but Stendhal-inducingly does it flare. The band knew their references by setting the video in the desert, but this finds them at their shoegaziest in a way acts like Kyuss and Sleep never were, ground zero for understanding how Gen Z got into Deftones.
2. “Rocket Skates”
From “Diamond Eyes” (2010)
It certainly becomes increasingly difficult to triangulate the appropriate superlatives to portray the massiveness (it is also a word!) of the Deftones sound, and “Rocket Skates” may provide the biggest challenge of the lot. It is a hyperactive gallop, with a crazed pace from the crank of the opening riff and initial bass guitar slide. Moreno sounds completely feverish on the mint-condition hook, with “guns! razors! knives!” executed to perfection and surely ranking as one of his greatest moments, especially when topped off with a “wooooo!” that would make Ric Flair seem relaxed. The dovetailing guitar battalion brings the heat to the bridge, tearing open a veritable black hole of propulsive, overdriven noise, and the crash of Cunningham’s cymbals and skins alike is gut-level. At the bottom line, it simply sounds stupendous and there may not be a track in the catalogue that I return to more regularly.
1. “Pink Maggit”
From “White Pony” (2000)
For all their critical credentials and progressive baubles, “Pink Maggit” is the closest Deftones ever came to drone-adjacent post-metal. Both its becalming opening movement and crushing denouement are vibrant with the sounds of mega-waves cresting and tectonic plates shifting, an affair of sonic adventurism which successfully locates terra firma. Submerged in the mix and thrashing earthwards is a song many know as one of the band’s biggest hits, the unauthorised “Back To School (Mini Maggit)”. A band’s finest achievement doubles as a parable on the dangerous lure of commercialism, forced and otherwise. Chalk it down to experience, as it certainly didn’t hurt them in the long run, victoriously closing what narrowly remains their magnum opus.
Roads To The North 