Prayers / Triangles - epic, higher-energy than most of the album

Acid Hologram - Slow, huge, warm sound, melodic, really cool middle riff with St
ephen's whammy bar work
Doomed User - time signature shifts, epic riffs, Chino screams more, huge melodi
c chorus, Stephen divebombs more
Geometric Headdress - more cool time sig shifts, almost proggy riffs, more big e
pic melodic choruses
Hearts / Wires - very Floydish opening, kind of a guitar solo, definitely showca
ses band's more shoegaze tendencies, still has a huge chorus
Pittura Infamante - Almost a happy-sounding intro, cool 6/8 grooves and riffs
Xenon - riff balancing lows and highs, almost kind of psychedelic,
(L)mirl - slower track, really cool bass part, big build-ups to the riffs at the
end
Gore - more Chino screams, quiet-loud dynamic, outro kind of reminds me of Meshu
ggah
Phantom Bride - more kind of shoegaze-y stuff, even more Pink Floyd worship, ver
y melodic, another huge chorus, Jerry Cantrell's solo is great!
Rubicon - explosive intro, interesting song structure, another kind of Meshuggah
ish outrow
SOUND
----I have to admit that I became a fan of Deftones for entirely narcissistic reason
s. I had kind of passed them off as "just another nu-metal band" for quite a lon
g time, until I had started writing atmospheric metal of my own on low-tuned 7-s
tring guitars, only to have a close friend comment on how my music sounded "just
like Deftones", and after checking out "Saturday Night Wrist", saw exactly what
he meant and became a fan. Of course, I got into their back catalogue, and anti
cipated their future releases. "Diamond Eyes" and "Koi No Yokan" did not disappo
int me at all, with the band diving deeper into sonic experimentation and ambien
t textures. Pre-ordering "Gore" was pretty much a no-brainer at this point. Now,
I'd been aware of the band's oft-tumultuous history up to this point, including
the sad passing of their bassist and the album they were working on, "Eros", wh
ich to this day remains unfinished and unreleased. They had announced that album
would be dramatic, huge, almost Pink Floyd-ish in its delivery, and even though
very little of it has seen the light of day, one listen to "Gore" has got me th
inking that these attributes could apply to this record as well. Right from the
opening clean guitars of "Prayers/Triangles", you get a sense of the epic scope
of the album, and the epic high-energy chorus sounds like a possible defining mo
ment for rock in 2016. "Acid Hologram" is a song chock full of slow, sludgy atmo
sphere, and cool syncopated riffs with some interesting whammy bar noodling from
Stephen Carpenter (who had his signature ESP tele-style 8-strings fitted with F
loyd Roses). "Doomed User" brings plenty of metal riffage to the table, a lot of
it in odd time signatures like 5/4. Chino gets a lot of space to unleash his an
imalistic screams on this tune, which he doesn't use as frequently on this recor
d. But when he does, it's used to great effect, similar to Stephen and his Floyd
Rose. Continuing in a very proggy direction is "Geometric Headdress", which fea
tures the kind of big, epic chorus that this album is known for. "Hearts/Wires"
opens in a very Pink Floyd-esque way, waiting through almost two minutes of clea
n guitar and bass noodling before the lyrics kick in. The song showcases a very
shoegaze-y side of the band, and spends a lot of its length dramatically buildin
g up to its climax. "Pittura Infamante" and "Xenon" are both kind of psychedelic
-sounding tracks with interlocking guitar riffs that use a different guitar rang
e than we've gotten used to on recent Deftones output, focusing more on high not
es than Stephen's often massive-sounding low end riffs. "(L)mirl", aside from it
s odd title, has some of my favourite bass playing on the album and like a lot o
f the songs here, builds up quite dramatically. "Gore" features a lot of the qui
et-verse/loud-chorus dynamic a little more typical of the genre, and has an eeri
e, almost Meshuggah-esque closing riff. "Phantom Bride" features Jerry Cantrell

on lead guitar and shows the band taking another very Pink Floyd-esque left turn
, with lots of soaring melodies and slow buildups. And Jerry's solo will remind
a lot of people of David Gilmour, with its long, soulful bends and almost vocallike melodic delivery, before accompanying a very huge-sounding eight-string rif
f. The album closes with "Rubicon", shunning more typical song structures for an
explosive intro and more energetic riffs and a kind of prog sensibility, before
closing with another kind of Meshuggah-ish riff.
Production-wise, the record sounds great. There are many times I can hear the ba
ss quite clearly. The dynamics are quite good on this album, though it might be
a bit loud at times. Stephen recounted in a Guitar World interview that the majo
rity of his issue with going into recording this album (as he had apparently bee
n the "unhappy member" of the band on this record) had to do with his guitar rig
setup, getting his Axe FX tones perfect. Well, I happen to think he hit the mar
k quite well with his guitar tones on this record.
Performance-wise, everyone is at the top of their game. Stephen is exploring the
sonic spaces of the eight-string quite adeptly, in his own sort of signature st
yle. Chino's vocal performance is stunning as usual, and his guitar playing adds
all sorts of shimmering layers atop the solid foundation laid by the rest of th
e band. Sergio's bass playing is great, laying a foundation but not always just
copying the rhythm guitar. Abe's drumming is tight, but groovy. Frank, like Chin
o's guitar playing, does a wonderful job of adding layers of intrigue on top of
the music, and while his role is not that of a soloist or rhythmic player, what
he adds to the songs would be sorely missed if it were removed.
Deftones have really hit the mark with this album, sonically. It sounds like the
kind of album you can just let wrap around you like a warm, fuzzy blanket. The
band has really grown a bigger appreciation for using concepts like musical spac
e and building up tension to create a dynamic, dramatic album.
LYRICS
-----I ordered the album from iTunes, which sadly did not come with a lyric sheet. Th
e few songs that have been posted on the internet so far have shown Chino's lyri
cs to be very poetic and, though not overtly personal, seem very heartfelt. It's
hard to gather any real meaning from the lyrics, but to me, that just adds to t
he mystique of them. Take this pair of verses from "Acid Hologram":
<i>Your light will fade
And our hearts will sync
In time your disguise
Will shift and reverse
In the wave of your plume
We bathe and drink
You remind me of her again
Smother me in shapes</i>
It's all a bit abstract, but it paints a very interesting picture in the mind, a
nd matches up quite well with the music.
Chino delivers all of the lyrics in his usual way, with a very vulnerable-soundi
ng and dreamy clean voice, or his piercing shrieks. The way he transitions from
one to the other is very unique, and there's not a singer out there that sounds
like Chino. He can lull you to slumber one minute, and scare the crap out of you
the next. There seem to be a lot of harmony vocals on this album as well, which
is something I enjoy.

As Deftones are a very vocal-driven band, the fact that their singer has so many
unique facets to his voice that he uses quite well, and always has, makes them
a rather unique fixture in rock music. Chino may well be one of my favourite voc
alists out there, and this album uses his talents quite well. Some fans may be t
urned off by the slightly more tilted balance towards clean vocals than screams,
but I personally think this is a good thing.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
-----------------After some really great albums, Deftones seem to be on a really great trajectory
, and "Gore" just continues this. Every album they've released so far has been b
etter than the last, and while I loved "Koi No Yokan" a lot, "Gore" is just a va
stly better album, and showcases the band's talents a lot more. But it never fee
ls like an album of disconnected styles or rapid-fire genre changes, it feels li
ke a truly coherent, cohesive body of work. In many ways, the band has been show
ing its prog sensibilities more readily on this record as well, with a lot more
in terms of extended instrumental passages (a guitar solo on a Deftones record!?
Well, I never!), strange song structures, and climactic build-ups. It's hard to
single out just one good song from this record, though I'd have to recommend ch
ecking out "Phantom Bride" just to show a completely different side of the band,
and because I'm a fan of Jerry Cantrell's lead work. There's nothing I really d
islike about the album at all, and I feel that this album has a lot of potential
to become one of my top albums of 2016. It might be too early to call this Deft
ones' <i>magnum opus</i>, especially if we still have a chance of finally hearin
g "Eros", but this album is a pretty strong contender for that title.
If you're looking for a strong experimental metal album with a lot of different
moods and sounds, you really can't go wrong with "Gore". If, like me, you had pa
ssed this band off because of their association with bands like Korn and Limp Bi
zkit in the late-90s, do yourself a favour and get over it, and check out this a
mazing record.
Very solid 9/10