It has been five years since the release of Deftone's Saturday Night Wrist, and in 2010 they released their long awaited album Diamond Eyes. The Deftones went through a lot of emotional turmoil during that time when news came on bassist Chi Cheng's car accident, leaving him in a coma since 2008. During this time, the band was in the process of working on a new album entitled Eros, but when the tragic news came, the album was put on hold. Instead of continuing with Eros, the Deftones decided to start another album from scratch and brought aboard Sergio Vega (former Quicksand member), who filled Cheng's spot on bass. Despite what this band has been through, Diamond Eyes is by far their best album-to-date.
The Deftones have always been about musical dexterity, with each album sounding different than the others, while still keeping that metal undertone. On Diamond Eyes, the band combines atmospheric hard rock with intricate ballads. Songs such as 'Rocket Skates' and 'Royal' have crushing riffs and heavy tones, while 'Sextape' and '976-Evil' have more ballad sounding results. The track 'Sextape' has no sexual qualities whatsoever, and is really about spiritual isolation, whereas '976-Evil' is about singer Chino Moreno looking for someone he has lost (vague references to Cheng can be picked out in this track), and there is nothing evil about this song, in fact it is one of the more melodic ballads on the album. The Deftones have always been good with hidden meanings and Chino writes lyrics that are always open to interpretation. The song 'Prince' has a very similar feel to 'RX Queen' from their album White Pony. Diamond Eyes, as a whole, is not a tribute album to a fallen brother and friend (though many tracks could be interpreted to fit Cheng's current state), but rather an evolution for the band. Rather than going through with Eros and performing the songs live, which would put the band into a deeper depression, they decided to create a whole new album that they could perform live without the emotional distress.
All in all, Diamond Eyes, is quality musical material. The Deftones have never been about pinpointing themselves into a particular genre, but instead they incorporate elements from all spectrums into the mix. Sometimes when tragedy strikes, those going through the tragedy become stronger as people, and this is exactly what has happened with the Deftones. They look on the positive side of things with Cheng's condition, and continue to think that he will wake up at any minute. They wrote Diamond Eyes knowing that Cheng would come out of his coma-state, and thinking this way has allowed them to make one of their best albums to date. According to the band, Cheng's condition is getting better day-by-day and I, as well as many, hope that he wakes up soon enough.
Check out the track 'Royal' off of the album Diamond Eyes:
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