arcane-beautiful I have to be honest, when this album came out, I wasn't even aware of it. My brother bought it and he told me they had a new one. I was slightly surprised, but I was also rather intrigued, due to my interest in the band starting to rise ever since the release of “Diamond Eyes”. So I decided to give this a listen, and I was surprised.

I do slightly prefer “Diamond Eyes” to this album, but trying to make a comparison between these two is very hard, because they are both very different beasts. This album is a lot more experimental in style and very different to anything these guys have done. Now there are some songs I'm not the biggest fan of, but there are songs that overcloud most stuff these guys have done in the past 15 years.

The guitar tone on this album has also been toned down a bit. In some ways, I'm slightly disappointed, but it does allow the band to have more of a gelled sound, rather than have the guitar sound drowning out the rest of the instruments. Chino's vocals remain the same, with a lot more focus on melody and harmony than the previous albums. Lyrically the songs have more of a story based focus to them and work very well the more experimental music.

The opener “Swerve City” is an obvious choice for a single. A brilliant start to the album and one of Deftones most catchiest songs in ages. Brilliant vocals from Chino as well. There's also a brilliant music video for this song.

“Romantic Dreams” to me has a very Rush feel to it, especially with the guitar riffs. The build up's with Chino's vocals are brilliant too.

One of the album's softer songs is found in the track “Entombed.” I believe that this song is about Chino, and it really works well with the beautiful musical arrangement.

The track “Tempest” was a rather odd choice as a single from this album. One of the more experimental and longer compositions on the album. Still interesting, but I wouldn't have picked it as a single.

My personal favourite on the album has to be “Rosemary.” An almost doom/drone metal laced song, it really is a brilliant clash and contrast of styles. The riff near the end is absolutely mammoth and the closing instrumental is incredibly beautiful.

In conclusion, I would prefer Diamond Eyes over this album, mainly because I enjoyed the songs more, but there are tracks on this album that are some of my favourite Deftones songs and some of the best stuff these guys have ever made. A rather experimental album, I would recommend this to anyone who likes a bit of experimentation in there music, because this is a rather risky move for the band, but it's pulled off spectacularly.

8.3/10

RIP Chi Cheng