Deftones - Adrenaline (1995) Reviews

As a self professed Deftones fan, I can say with the utmost honesty that Adrenaline is the album of their's that I return to the least often. And it is not because I consider it to be the bands worst album; it isn't. But when I think of the Deftones and their legacy, Adrenaline is the album that I am the least likely to refer newcomers towards. It's the one that is the most unlike that of the rest of their discography, and probably the one sound that the Deftones are more than likely not to return to.

It is still very much their record though: I can hear lots of mending with the vocals and guitar tones in post-production to give it a unique flare. The grooves are still very much in line with what the Deftones would provide us with later on in their careers.

But it also contains some of the bands most blatant nu-metal trending tones. And I understand why they did it; it was a very popular trend at the time and catching on to the bandwagon would be a surefire way of getting their name out there. And it worked. Chino has a fair number of faux rapping sections on this LP and they are as cringe as someone like myself would expect, looking back on a twenty-five year old record!

But the lyrics aren't apart of the problem. I've talked about in recent reviews that the lyrical content of nu-metal records is whiny, underprivileged and the anger is undeserved. The Deftones do not have any of these stakes involved since most of the lyrical content is nonsense. It may be a stretch, but I have a feeling this band did not want to remain in the nu-metal trend for very long, only to allow for moderate name recognition.

The compositions are also nothing unexpected from a Deftones record. I really enjoyed how the first three songs, "Bored", "Minus Blindfold" and "One Week" all have similar riffs and lyrical motifs and how they connect together, even if they are distinctly original ideas. I wish that songwriting process could have been enacted on the rest of the record. Sound wise, the heavily filtered guitars were quite distracting for me. I know that it's apart of the groups character, but a more authentic sound could have helped. I think what disappoints me more is that around the time of this albums release, nu-metal was all for messy mixing and heavily filtered guitars. A more natural sound would have made this album resonate far more than it did.

I like a few of the compositions on this record, but as I just mentioned, the production held them back from true greatness. Overall, I think that Adrenaline served its purpose adequately for the Deftones and they managed to refine that sound in 1997 with Around the Fur, considered by many to be the best record in the subgenre. But it's what the band would become in the next millennium that would elevate them to legendary status in my ears.

So here's the thing.  For a guy who doesn't particularly like nu-metal, Deftones occupy a hefty portion of artists beginning with "D" in my music library.  I first got turned onto them after a brief drift away from metal saw me return and immediately become enamoured with Diamond Eyes and I subsequently worked my way back to the greatness of White Pony as I checked out their back catalogue.  Somehow I never got beyond Around The Fur though.  For no logical reason my sub-conscious told me that the debut album would not be for me as although I enjoyed Around The Fur it still bordered on being a little too nu-metal so by proxy the debut would be way too much.

I was wrong.  To a point.  Whilst Adrenaline clearly is dripping with nu-metal it's greatest challenge is that it is not entirely well written or composed.  Now, given the fact that this is the band's debut record some slack has to be cut, however the band had already been together (albeit with an unstable line-up) for seven years at this point and I still would expect a little more deftness in the songwriting department after nearly a decade of trying to get a debut together.  The thing that saves the record for me though is the application (be it intentional or not) of the taut emotion that broods throughout the record, occasionally peering out from the at times directionless and uniform music to show the first glimpses of what really started to take hold on White Pony some five years after this.

This recognisable trait is the saving grace for me.  Having started later in the bands's discography I can forgive it being in this raw and misfiring state as it gets drip-fed through the under-developed riffs, sterile production and lazy vocal delivery.  I know it is sub-par but it is entirely understandable as I know that they honed this primitive sack of reactive feelings and on later records used it as sentiment and sensation to deliver some meaningful and memorable records.

Taken as a standalone debut album it makes virtually no waves in my lake, but knowing the rivers it feeds further on it increases in importance almost organically.

I'm not really feeling this one. I really like some of their later material (especially "White Pony") but this sounds like they were still finding their feet at this stage. 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 found it to be a bit flat.