Deftones vocalist/guitarist Chino Moreno was recently introduced to the term of ‘baddiecore’ by Metal Hammer. That genre descriptor has been attributed to being originated by Stray From The Path drummer Craig Reynolds, and has described a growing wave of metalcore-oriented bands that have sexual or romantic themes in their music, including the likes of Sleep Token, Bad Omens and more.
Like Faith No More to nü-metal, in a sense, Deftones have served as unwitting godfathers to baddiecore. When asked if he was familiar by the term by the above-mentioned publication, Moreno replied, “I have not, but there’s another genre we have to escape at some point, right?” Moreno then went on to reflect on why love, lust and romance has often affected his lyrical content, as well as baddiecore artists, offering:
“It’s part of growing up, those feelings, and it’s not something that just dissipates as you get older. Hopefully everybody still has desires as they grow old, you know what I mean? And I think connect with it. I grew up loving a lot of romanticised music. Obviously Depeche Mode, I’ve always claimed my love for them, and that was something that was always present in the songs, and I’ve always connected with. So I think, maybe in a roundabout way, some of that has seeped into our music.”
Also addressed in the new interview with Metal Hammer was Deftones‘ conscious attempts to once again not get caught up in the nü-metal amid that genre’s resurgence that has taken place in recent years. While numerous bands from the era have seen a rise in interest, and various bands from the era have reunited for a victory lap, Deftones remain cautious.
The band intentionally distanced themselves from that genre around 2000, making a calculated move to establish their own identity with “White Pony“. That decision had consequences however, putting a strain on their relationships with the likes of Korn and more, as Deftones looked to break away from touring with nü-metal bands as well.
As Moreno put it back in 2017, “Our first instinct was just to kind of it push it away ’cause you know to me when they called it nü metal for one, I was like well if it’s nü, you’re putting the word new in it, it’s gonna be old in a couple years.”
Ironically, his band once again found themselves in that same boat over the past several years, as younger audiences have gravitated towards nü-metal. When asked about how he feels about that resurgence, which has also directly benefitted his own band, Moreno offered:
“It’s so funny, because we tried hard not to be lumped in with nü-metal when nü-metal was big, and then we kind of had to do it again with the nü-metal resurgence – like, hoping that we weren’t going to get lumped in once again. I think we do at times, but we didn’t want to be dated back then, and the musical choices we made were not going to pigeonhole us into that space and time.”
Deftones released their tenth studio album “private music‘ last Friday, August 22nd.
