Album Review: Deftones - Ohms
Reviewed by Cat Finch
The gentle hum of a single synthesizer note buzzers through the listeners ears. The persistent note grows louder. Softly, a guitar joins creating an atmosphere that sucks the listener in, encapsulating them, focusing their full attention of the music filling their aural sphere before that familiar vocal tone of Chino Moreno rings out.
This is the reintroduction the band give their fans as the first new Deftones album in four years kicks into full flow. It seems only yesterday that the ground-breaking ‘Adrenaline’ was released, yet that album is already twenty five years old! Similarly the seminal ‘White Pony’ turned twenty this year! Where has time gone?
The band have been on a rollercoaster of a journey since those heady early days, the much reported highs and lows the band experienced along the way brings them to a point where they are ready to unleash their ninth studio album, ‘Ohms’.
From the gentle intro to ‘Genesis’ the song and indeed the album turns into a snarling beast. ‘Ceremony’ follows the traditional formula of a Deftones song, the meandering, softly spoken verse leading to the throbbing heart of a chorus, leaving the listener on the edge of their seat, blood pumping and adrenaline flowing from an all-encompassing listening experience.
Nothing on the album can be classed as a short, punchy affair. The majority of tracks around the four to five minute mark, allowing time for the band to paint their metaphorical picture without venturing too far down the progressive path. But on the progressive side of music this is; ‘The Spell of Mathematics’ and ‘Pompeji’ in particular standing out, pushing the boundaries of what you expect from Deftones.
Just as the album changed pace into the two aforementioned songs, it changes up a gear into ‘This Link Is Dead’, but then pummelling the listener from the opening note of ‘Radiant City’, Chino’s vocal variance standing front and centre, beautifully pitched throughout.
‘Ohms’ as a piece of work demonstrates the maturity in the bands song writing that they have developed over time. To compare the album to earlier releases would be unfair, the band and their music have grown up overtime, just as their fans have. ‘Ohms’ demonstrates a grown up Deftones, like a fine wine the band have bettered with age. This sits perfectly in the Deftone fan’s aural sphere as of 2020.
