July 2020 Feature Release - The Gateway Edition
It's now July which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. Ben & I will certainly be contributing & we look forward to hearing your thoughts too.
This month's feature release for The Gateway is 1995's highly regarded debut album "Adrenaline" from Sacramento-based nu metal outfit Deftones. It would represent a significant landmark in the formative years of the subgenre & stands out quite obviously in the band's back catalogue as it sounds noticeably different from their later releases which take an arguably more mature alternative metal direction. We're looking forward to seeing what side of the fence you fall on with this one.
https://metal.academy/releases/435
Nu-metal is not my favoured genre but oddly I have a lot of time for Deftones (having the majority of their output in my library). I don't recall ever even giving the debut a try and for no good reason either other than some sub-conscious nonsense about it probably being too nu-metal or something. Anyway, I have added it to my library on stream this morning to give it some playtime over the weekend.
Well it's too nu metal for me Vinny so I won't be surprised to hear you say the same. I really like some of Deftones later material too (especially "White Pony") but "Adrenaline" sounds like the band were still finding their creative feet & subsequently stands out like a sore thumb in their back catalogue. The nu-metal bits annoy me, the production is very dry (especially the guitar sound) & the song-writing doesn't capture me consistently enough. It's not miles off the mark as there's a few decent tracks & the performances are generally pretty good but overall I find it to be a bit flat.
3/5
Well, I actually enjoyed it to some degree. Suffers badly from poor songwriting and shit production but I get enough from it to be able to forgive the rampant nu-metal aspects of it. Review done.
My opinion of Adrenaline was not very well flushed out as evidence in my review. It was more of a spattering of quips that, while still entertaining, does not hold the same value to me as further Deftones albums. It was clear from the outset that Deftones were not intending to be full fledged trend hoppers in nu-metal, and it does make for a fairly enjoyable listen. The first few tracks have similar musical themes, making them connect well together, but that is forced out about halfway through; a big disappointment. Throw on top of that the inconsistent mixing, and Chino's faux rapping, and the debut record does feel a stepping stone before the group would go off the rails later.
6/10
I'm really glad that Deftones grew out of this initial style. They managed to pick out the strongest elements and expand upon those, leaving the choppy Nu-Metal songwriting and terrible production behind for Around The Fur. While sufficiently aggressive, the guitar tone is pretty atrocious and each song feels haphazard and pointless, mirroring my thoughts on other early Nu-Metal groups like Korn. The smooth, ever-present vocals don't mesh too well with the style of riffs they chose, making the whole thing a pretty confusing affair. I also find a lot of early Nu-Metal like this to be incredibly awkward with all of the whispering and free-form vocals like in "Nosebleed". I guess these are supposed to be emotional and angsty? Whatever the intent was, it definitely doesn't work on me. There are some good riffs in here and it's definitely a piece of Nu-Metal history, but I couldn't help but get more and more annoyed the longer I listened. I'm really grateful that they smoothed out their sound to something way more unique and interesting in such a short period of time after Adrenaline.
2.5/5