Bad news for those still holding out hope to one day hear Deftones‘ unfinished 2008 album “Eros“. That effort was ultimately shelved when a November 2008 car accident left their bassist/vocalist Chi Cheng with a traumatic brain injury that would eventually claim his life in 2013. Given the painful associations and emotions associated with that time and those sessions, the band would move on, instead restarting from scratch for 2010’s “Diamond Eyes“.
Since then however, “Eros” has taken on an almost mythical status in the alternative metal band’s catalog, with fans curious not only to hear the music created for it, but also experience the final recordings with Cheng. That’s not to say that the band’s admirers have entirely been left in the dark though.
Back in 2014, the group did stream the song “Smile” from it. They even went on to perform that track live for the first some five years later. More unfinished demo material from the album would go on to leak out as well.
While the band haven’t been entirely dismissive about the possibility of some of those songs eventually being completed and seeing a proper release, some new commentary on the matter by vocalist/guitarist Chino Moreno suggests it all remains highly unlikely.
Taking part in a newly published fan Q&A with The Guardian, a fan asked Moreno, ‘I listen to a lot of the songs from ‘Eros‘ floating around the internet – ‘Dallas‘ especially. Do you think that record will ever see the light of day?’ Moreno responded:
“We’re always asked about ‘Eros‘. It will most likely never see the light of day. That would involve going back to that period and resurrecting unfinished things, and somehow bringing them to completion. ‘Dallas‘ is the only song that was anywhere near finished.
This new album started with ideas we’d been working on alone, through the pandemic. And when we got together to actually start making the record, none of us wanted to look back at those ideas from the pandemic – we wanted to capture the moment we’re in today.
So going back to try to capture what was happening back during ‘Eros‘, and finishing those ideas, doesn’t really make sense.”
Deftones just released their tenth studio album “private music” today, August 22nd.
