Deftones - Ohms (September 25, 2020) Album • Page 56

It would be good if it wasnt preceded by four very good albums that were more interesting and engaging. Definitely agree with Audrey that it feels too safe.

 

10000% I just caught myself thinking while listening to 976-EVIL that I would probably like that song a lot more if the rest of the record wasn’t .... relatively soft by their standards. this album could really do with at least one more song that was as heavy as (preferably more than) Royal or Rocket Skates

 

Y'all are gonna make me act up lmao I disagree wholeheartedly. Feel like "straightforward radio rock" is being used as a weird negative/backwards complement when it's closer to being the purest distillation of what they do best as a band imo, also feel like I could pick out "radio-rock" friendly tracks on any of their records that aren't Adrenaline or Saturday Night Wrist

 

it’s not an insult to it. it’s just how I feel. I have long thought that it is v easily amongst my least fav work by them and that opinion only really gets stronger through the years, sadly. again, I love it, it would be a lot of bands’ best record probably. but it features the least inspiring (not “inspired”, that’s impossible to speak on imo) performances from basically every member other than Chino for me.

to me, the purest distillations of what they do best are S/T (especially), ATF, and Ohms, fwiw. the more I listen to all of those the more they feel like the band at their barest essence.

 

I mean "CMND/CTRL," c'mon folks!

 

I think it’s interesting that ‘radio rock’ is a pejorative, when literally every band ever up to the internet age did everything they did in order to get on the radio. Being on the radio was literally a sign of success. I understand there’s supposedly a sound that ‘radio rock’ has, but particularly going back to the 90s when they started, can confirm: there was no such thing as ‘radio rock.’ Lots and lots and LOTS of different rock bands sat side by side on rock radio. Like, I remember listening to rock radio in high school and heading Weezer and then Nirvana and then Korn and then Green Day. There wasn’t a sound - it was just whatever was successful.

 

It definitely has good songs on it but it's their least interesting since their debut. In general I dont think radio rock is an insult and it's not a bad album in any way, but the four albums that precede it were more than just good radio rock.

 

I think all of their records contain moments of what could be "good radio rock" but I don't think any of their albums are JUST that

 

I'll counter the Diamond Eyes scrutiny by throwing in that s/t is still my second least favorite from them lol

 

My second least favorite is Saturday Night Wrist but that's still like a 7/10, just an great band that puts out consistently great records

 

I won’t tell you how I really feel about this one other than I still v much like it despite my qualms lol

 

It randomly popped up in my Spotify Top Songs of 2020 lol

 

I know SNW gets much more praise nowadays than it used to but it always seems obvious to me that Diamond Eyes was a big step up from it. Loathe to use the phrase "return to form" given I still like SNW but DE was them returning to the top level. It was the narrative at the time and on this occasion I think it was accurate.

"Good radio rock" seems a crazy undersell to me. The songs are too fucking good.

 

I would call DE more mainstream alt-metal than radio rock at the end of the day. there are moments where it’s very much their most straight ahead rock kinda record tho (often it’s best moments, Sextape kinda falls into that category). they’re still doing a lot of interesting chord progressions and song structures and the like. chino is really flexing his melodic muscle and going for tons of upper extensions in his melodies (maybe more than ever). but I really do feel like it’s his least venomous performance, for lack of better phrasing, and that venom is a big part of what makes the prior four (and KNY and Ohms), go down as such impactful records for me. saturday night wrist is so mathy and interesting to me musically, it’s like the antithesis of the s/t in that that record was so much more content to just stay put and ride the gargantuan, heavy and thick grooves out. Chino also fucked with dissonance a ton in his melodies on both those records (and white pony too) in such genuinely intriguing ways to me and that always kept me coming back and trying to really understand and parse out his melodies, and to this day I still feel like I understand them and love them more on each subsequent listen somehow. I also honestly love what his vocal injury did to his screams, and that he never tried to stop doing it lol. s/t especially has the best, most enthralling, and visceral screams I have ever heard in my life probably. I don’t understand how someone can sound so vicious like he does in When Girls Telephone Boys, and how he managed to push himself so beautifully and artfully to his absolute limits with Hexagram. that performance belongs in a fucking museum lol. I feel like I am on the edge of my seat a lot of the times with how gripping and engaging I find ATF—>SNW. for me, Diamond Eyes almost feels like it sheds a lot of my favorite elements of the band (which a lot of other people don’t vibe with), kind of like trimming the fat/excess, rounding off the edges a bit, idk. it clearly works and hits hard for some people, but I am literally just trying to articulate/put words to v real feelings and thoughts I have while listening to probably my favorite discography of any band. not trying to upset anyone or knock an album I realize is v important for a lot of folks. like I said, out of context of the rest of their career it’s better than many band’s best efforts.

 

also, at the end of the day, all these terms and genre tags and labels or whatever are relative to the band’s own p insular world. at the end of the day if deftones made a straight up radio rock record it would still be deftones’ version of a radio rock record because they sound like themselves above anything else (largely because they have an insanely wide and diverse range of influences between all the members). each deftones album has its own unique identity to me, none of them really sound quite like another to me, even if there are obvious similarities and comparisons you can draw with them. any time I am listening to them they each bring distinct feelings to me, each sound like they create their own little world and that’s why they all have their fierce and loyal defenders/fans/whatever. they just don’t make the same album twice.

 

Diamond Eyes is a banger.

 

have you considered believing in the one true power?

wow bet you feel dumb right now

 

i agree with everything said about DE being the safe radio friendly album but i think it’s less to do with songwriting and performance choices and more to do with the production. nick r really dropped the ball, that album could have been willlllld

 

Yeah, Koi No Yokan is immediately more engaging.

 

I like Pink Cellphone. The ending is hilarious to me, like they were just messing around in the studio. I also now think SNW is a near perfect album. I really love every song and how different they all are.

 

All the Diamond Eyes criticism makes me feel like an uncultured heathen. I love that album.

 

pink cellphone is dope - I could do without the ending but

 

It's not bad. It's kind of like the latest World is a Beautiful Place. It's a good record that doesn't fit into place in their discography. Diamond Eyes would be much better if it was after Adrenaline but it was after four albums that were all more interesting and consistent so it just seemed like a step back. Koi is fantastic and is probably gonna fight to be my favorite.

 

if diamond eyes works for you on that kind of level, there’s nothing wrong with that— it’s great! my preferences just lie elsewhere