White Pony

About

Sacramento’s Deftones spent most of the ‘90s feverishly navigating the fringes of alt-metal. By 2000’s <i>White Pony</i>, they had effectively seized that scene, drowning its rage and recklessness in a moody, muddy stew of experimental metal, shoegaze, post-hardcore, and ambient noise. Opener “Back to School (Mini Maggit)”—a tidier rewriting of final track “Pink Maggit”—documents that takeover in radio-friendly format. Punctuated with adolescent angst, frontman Chino Moreno’s overblown raps bounce off the metallic squall as if ricocheting through locker-strewn hallway. But the rest of the album teases and torments within far more debaucherous environ, starting with the title itself, <i>White Pony</i>, a symbol of sex and a certain powdered stimulant. Lead single “Change (In the House of Flies)” speaks to the mania those corporeal pleasures can elicit—its menacing plod gives way to an explosive choru, then a sinister request: “Give you the gun, blow me away,” Moreno chokes out at the bridge. It’s certainly not the only time he flirts with death. On “Digital Bath,” he daydreams about an electrocution, whispering seductively under the narcotic spell of a liquidy synth; on “Passenger,” he trades taunts with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan on a whiplashing ride that’s heading straight to either transcendence or hell. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

Start your shelf to read the full take →