Deftones - White Pony (2000) Reviews

White Pony is revered as one of the greatest Alternative Metal albums of all time, and as a big fan of certain strains of the genre, I gave this album a very fair chance. The potential for masterpiece is there, but overall I was left wondering what makes this so great in the eyes of the world.

By rights, the highs are magnificent. It’s got a couple great songs that kept me coming back again and again. But I soon found that most of the album just consisted of anticipation for those few tracks, while the majority didn’t do anything special for me. Why was this?

For me personally, it’s because White Pony just doesn’t go far enough in any of the things it sets out to do. It’s an eclectic album with a good balance of influences, primarily Alt Rock and Alt Metal, but also spreading across Nu Metal, Shoegaze, Post-Hardcore, Dream Pop, and even some artier moments of Downtempo and Glitch. Problem is, it doesn’t exactly excel at any of those things. The heavier, Nu Metal tracks are not heavy enough nor aggressive enough, the darker songs aren’t dark enough, the clean songs aren’t catchy enough, the emotional songs aren’t passionate or evocative enough… you get the idea. If I wanted heavy Nu Metal, I’d rather throw on Slipknot. If I wanted cleaner, more passionate Alt metal, give me modern Katatonia or In flames. If I wanted atmospheric stuff… give me actual Shoegaze or Post-Metal.

The highlights of this album are found in those couple great tracks where everything comes together perfectly. As shameful as it is, I’m unfortunately talking about the same tracks that everybody else likes, the lead singles “Digital Bath” and “Change (In the House of Flies).”

Wow, is “Digital Bath” something special. That was the only song that immediately gripped me the first time I heard it. When Chino goes higher and passionate with his vocals and the gazey chords come in, man, it’s perfect. That moment in the middle of the song where you can actually hear something that sounds like electrical water… godly atmosphere. It’s catchy, it’s passionate, it’s moody, it’s atmospheric, and it’s got a hell of an interesting lyrical concept. AND it manages to capture all of that perfectly with the quirky song title.

“Change” was much more of a grower. Didn’t stand out immediately, but got a lot stronger each time I came back to the album, full of great symbolic lyricism and a dark, ominous mood that works really well with the simpler guitarwork. I will also give a shout out to “Knife Prty” which is just shy of a fantastic song thanks to a bit too much meandering and a slightly lamer concept idea, but the energy and mood of the song is great.

All of these aforementioned songs share something in common; they are cleaner, technically simpler, denser and more atmospheric. They focus on mood, and more evocative vocals. Deftones can do this sort of style pretty damn well. But when they try to do something else, they don’t succeed, and here’s why; the riffs suck. They are incredibly boring, mostly dissonant, not catchy, not creative, not evocative. Ditto for the rhythm section; it’s simple, boring, not energetic enough. Chino’s harsh vocals aren’t very convincing either. For this reason, the band falls flat when they try to go heavier or more energetic. None of the heavier Nu Metal songs left any impression on me. The only other song I can really remember is “Teenager” and that’s because it’s so damn different, being a full on Glitch/Downtempo track. And they do that one decently well too! They just were really not meant for Nu Metal.

At first I found Feiticeira to be standard Deftones, pretty much recalling half the songs of Around the Fur.  But Digital Bath surprised me with a soft and soothing Digital Bath that remained consistent through Chino's earnest vocal delivery.  And then we have the crazy and noisy Elite, where Chino's gone and decided not only to shout like a black metal artist, but add SOUND EFFECTS to his vocals.  And you know what?  It freaking works, because the guitars are working hard to recreate these same emotions displayed.  And then there's my favorite song on the album, Rx Queen, which is partly about artistic instrumentation and partly crypticism.

The whole album acts like this and stays catchy and emotional throughout pretty much the whole album.  I never knew what was going to happen next, and I had heard this album once before and completely forgotten what it sounded like.  Fuck, Teenager sounds like a goddamn Radiohead song!  Like something off Amnesiac!  And you know what?  It's a GOOD Radiohead song.  Even if we had only one genre to work with, Deftones could deliver a plethora of different kinds of songs.  But instead, they grace us with other influences ranging from shoegaze, grunge, post-metal, hardcore punk, post-hardcore, rap metal, etc.  They are all over the 90's rock spectrum with this metal album.  Their cryptic lyrics have a powerful, gothic and sometimes gruesome imagery about it, as if we took the layout of a Cobain song and applied Nick Cave topics.  Although, if I had to fault it for anything, by the end it becomes a bit much.  It's just a LITTLE overlong due to its two lengthy last songs.

This is a constantly engaging alt-metal release, and the kind that doesn't need to rely on solos or any metal tropes to complete its emotional goals.  This is all about being carried away by alternative metal and into a journey of self-awareness and reflection.  This is something only a handful of alternative bands of done, notably bands such as Tool or Alice in Chains.  In a way, during a time where "alternative rock" had become the radio staple it was never meant to become, White Pony acts as a fairly pop-structured alternative to what we're used to hearing with all of its weirdness and honesty.  So I feel like there's only one thing left to do: put this in my top five alternative metal albums.

I do not know if this opening statement is meant to invoke a positive reaction, but I'm going to say it anyway: the Deftones know how to create music that sounds like the inside of a hotboxed room. Coming into this album, Deftones have established themselves in the ever growing nu metal scene of the late 1990s and easily one of the styles most mature acts at that. So imagine the shock of so many Deftones fans during 2000 when tracks like "Digital Bath", "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Rx Queen" take center stage instead of "Back to School (Mini Maggit)" or "Elite". 

But I still cannot help but be completely infatuated by it! For an album that is so hazy, there is a certain cleanliness to it that I cannot comprehend how it got to this position. Yeah, some guitars on "Street Carp" and "Passenger" sound like they were twisted too much by an EQ filter, but there is some fascinating a poignant bass lines that compliment both the guitar as well as the slow but precise percussion. Chino's breathy vocal stylings are back and with a vengeance. Vocals tend to slur into one another during the records lighter moments, such as the acoustic "Teenager" and other soft verses. But the words are not emboldened with more reverb; they actually sound quite...acoustic. And that also helps the louder passages where Chino can accentuate and shout more, which are cleaner and gives the listener something to focus on.

Unlike many bands trying to evoke the drug-induced coma through their music, Deftones pull it off by actually including tunes in the songs. Repetition has always been the name of the game, but not one track on this album outstays its welcome. Each melody is unique, even as some of the albums timbre stagnates through tracks. It becomes comfortable, almost as if it could be played under any situation. It's good for working out, dinner music, relaxing and sleeping. In this regard, White Pony can be viewed as the "tune up" or as a more accessible version of Tool's Lateralus. Only fitting since Maynard appears for uncredited guest vocals on "Passenger". It might take a few tracks to really lock into a groove, but once it gets there, in the words of Chino on "Knife Prty" "I could float here forever".

Best Songs: Digital Bath, Rx Queen, Street Carp, Teenager, Knife Prty, Passenger, Change (In the House of Flies), Pink Maggit

When you consider how much drugs were (allegedly) up the noses of the band members circa the time of this release, it is a wonder anything vaguely coherent got recorded at all!  'White Pony' sits as an odd item in my record collection, given that I don't enjoy nu-metal, yet this having been said I have every release from "Around the Fur" up to and including "Koi No Yokan" sat in my collection in one guise or another.  I think that the non- nu metal parts of 'White Pony' are the most appealing though.  The combination of the emotion, melody and atmospheres on display here make for one challenging listen overall.

For all the "angry teen with a knife" angst in the jagged delivery of much of the record, there's tangible, drug-fuelled emotion in the form of Chino's vocals as he hazes and gazes his way throughout the 11 tracks on show.  Add to this Delgado's extraordinary use of his keys to stamp some bone-chilling atmospherics to proceedings (that, 'The Shining-esque' stab at the entry to the chorus of 'Change (in the House of Flies)', for example).  Carpenter's deft use of downtuned riffage compliments were required without him ever feeling too restrained to be able to dish out some melody when appropriate.

Whilst the high points may seem obvious, 'Passenger' and 'Change (In The House of Flies)' are exemplary partnerships of complex, hallucinogenic feelings and thoughts, given air time on one of the best auditory assaults of disjointed and disharmonious music of the 90's.