It’s not often that a record release is preceded by a member declaring it substandard. OK, we may be paraphrasing, but when Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter all-but voiced his dissatisfaction of ‘Gore’, the band’s eight studio album in twenty-one years, it cast an intriguing shadow over the record. Neither Stephen nor vocalist Chino Moreno have since been quiet over their sometimes conflicting ideas, the former looking for the heaviness that defined their early career and the latter pushing the ambience channelled through his multitude of side-projects, not least Team Sleep and Crosses.
‘Gore’ wears this dissent well, the band having evidently worked through their issues rather than see Carpenter pack his bags and swiftly exit the studio. Still, he doesn’t always get his own way. In its substantial running time the record barely wavers in pace. It’s a slog of a listen, but a rewarding one. The immediacy of ‘Diamond Eyes’ (remember the first time you heard the opening moment of that title-track?) that started to dissipate in 2012’s ‘Koi No Yokan’ has almost entirely vanished. Opener and lead single ‘Prayers/Triangles’ instead eases gently into the new sound.
With it, ‘Gore’ is at times unsettling. When the guitars are amped up and Moreno’s voice breaks into shrill screams, jarring against the subdued soundscapes, Deftones present some of their darkest moments to date. ‘Acid Hologram’ is a horror gem that somehow evokes the band’s nu-metal heritage without sounding misplaced, a feat matched by the record’s title-track further in. The record is filled with angst-ridden lyrics; “So I put this gun to my head and I smile, and dive deep,” Chino sings on ‘(L)MIRL’. These sit up against the transcendental ‘Hearts/Wires’ and ‘Phantom Bride’, the record consistently pushing and pulling from the ethereal to the dense.
It’s a musical stalemate where both parties come out on top. ‘Gore’ never feels as dreamlike as ‘Saturday Night Wrist’ or as heavy as ‘Adrenaline’, nor does it hark back to the likes of ‘White Pony’. Instead it sees Deftones march forward with a newfound accepted divisiveness. Each side has a part to play, and both play them with precision. ‘Gore’ never tries to do any more than that. Even as album closer ‘Rubicon’ reaches its conclusion it does so with little fanfare. After almost an hour, ‘Gore’ simply fades into black; an understated and suitably inconclusive end to a perfect creative musical tension.
BEN TIPPLE