Deftones

The legendary band Deftones is considered to be one of the founders of nu-metal and alternative. It was formed in 1988 by Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter and Abe Cunningham, who have been friends since the very childhood. Later they started to set up jam sessions in Carpenter's garage. Soon they found the bassist Chi Cheng, and the band recorded its first demos. Frank Delgado became a permanent member of Deftones closer to the release of White Pony and he had been a guest performer on the group's first two albums. At the beginning of the musical career the band performed in local clubs. Later they were playing gigs in San-Francisco and Los Angeles with their colleagues Korn. During one show Deftones were noticed by the representative of Maverick Records and soon they signed the contract with that label and started working on their debut record.

The first album Adrenaline was released in 1995 and after numerous shows in support for that record Deftones gained a huge fan base. Later the composition Engine No. 9 was covered by Korn and Suicide Silence. By 1999 more than 500,000 copies of Adrenaline were sold and the band’s debut album was certified Gold. The second studio attempt titled Around the Fur was issued in 1997 and it brought a real success to Deftones. They worked really thoroughly on that album, paying special attention to its sound. It was well received due to such compositions as My Own Summer (Shove It) and Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), which are among the band’s most recognizable songs. After the release of Around the Fur the band went on a tour and performed at several major festivals, such as Warped Tour, Roskilde Festival and Ozzfest.

In 2000 Deftones issued White Pony, which got even more interesting sound: Frank Delgado became a permanent member of the band. Moreno also stated that in the song Teenager they used some elements of trip-hop and electro - DJ Crook, Chino’s friend and his side-project Team Sleep bandmate took part in the creation of that track. Maynard James Keenan of Tool participated in the creation of Passenger, and RX Queen was recorded jointly with Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver. White Pony turned out to be a very strong record and in 2001 Deftones won a Grammy Award in the nomination Best Metal Performance for their composition Elite. In 2003 the band released the fourth studio work titled Deftones. The musicians experimented with the sound, and as the result the album included elements of different genres. The guitars were tuned in G#, thereby Hexagram, When Girls Telephone Boys, and Bloody Cape were extremely heavy. In 2005 Deftones released their compilation album B-Sides & Rarities which included rare songs and cover-versions created by the musicians during their career. The next album Saturday Night Wrist appeared in 2006 and was well-received by the fans and musical critics. Soon after the release Deftones went on the tour in support of Saturday Night Wrist.

In 2007 the musicians started working on the material for their new album Eros, but on November 4, 2008 the bassist Chi Cheng was seriously injured in a car accident and he lapsed into a coma. The album recording was postponed for uncertain term. Brian Welch and Reginald Arvizu from Korn with members of Sevendust, Slipknot, Metallica, Killswitch Engage and other bands recorded an instrumental composition called A Song for Chi in order to help Cheng’s family with the medical treatment payment. Deftones also organized two beneficial shows in Los Angeles, where performed POD, Cypress Hill, Far, Xzibit, Tommy Lee, Rob Trujillo and many others.

Eros was not released, however Deftones started to record their new album. The sixth album Diamond Eyes was issued in 2010 and the bass parts were performed by the former Quicksand member Sergio Vega. After Chi Cheng's car accident, Deftones wanted to make a more optimistic record. Thus, Diamond Eyes’ main theme is not the defects and imperfection of that world, but the zest for life.