Decades into their esteemed career, multi-platinum alternative metal band Deftones have managed to reach new heights in their popularity. That surge of interest emerged as younger generations have latched on to the group’s genre-trailblazing catalog via social media services like TikTok. That rampant success has been reflected upon not only by the band themselves, but also physically demonstrated by a slew of new gold and platinum certifications awarded to the outfit this past July.
With their tenth studio album “private music” drawing considerable acclaim, there’s been no shortage of accolades and honors bestowed upon Deftones throughout the years, including a frequent fan assertion over the years that the group are essentially ‘the Radiohead of metal.’
There are certainly career parallels between that latter British rock outfit and Deftones. Both bands made career-defining pushes outside of their established genre comfort zones, building highly regarded discographies as a result that essentially established each band as a genre descriptor unto themselves.
In a newly published interview with The Irish Times, Deftones vocalist/guitarist Chino Moreno reflected on his band being bestowed with that title, stating:
“It makes me smile, and it doesn’t annoy me at all. Can I see the correlation there? It’s hard for me, because I’m a big Radiohead fan, and I think they’re one of the most amazing bands of our generation. So it’s flattering, yes, to be compared to a band as great as them. Do I think that we are? Not necessarily.”
While Radiohead found initial success in the realm of alternative rock in the 90s, their left turn into electronic and experimentalism on their 2000 album “Kid A” laid the groundwork for decades of imitable and similarly adventurous music to come.
Deftones of course followed a similar career arc, intentionally pushing away from the nü-metal trappings of their first two albums with their own big swing at the fences, 2000s “White Pony“. Speaking to the aforementioned publication about that record now, Moreno stated:
“We could have easily made another ‘Around The Fur‘ or ‘Adrenaline‘. At that point, considering nu-metal was the biggest thing at the time, with the successes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and other bands, our record label thought it would have been the smartest thing to do.”
He went on to state:
“As much as people love that record now, when ‘White Pony‘ came out a lot of people didn’t understand it. In retrospect it is probably one of our most important records. We followed our instincts and did what we wanted to do, and that’s part of the reason why, almost 40 years on, we’re still able to have people be curious about our musical output.”
