Chino Moreno names his favourite Deftones album
Whilst many things make the alt-metal leviathan Deftones, without frontman Chino Moreno, they would not have become the world beaters they are or be so unique in the world of metal. Thanks to their creative figurehead, they’ve explored and married genres in a completely refreshing way for their field, giving their career longevity and allowing them to outlive any particular zeitgeist.
From the formative nu metal of their debut, 1995’s Adrenaline, to their last effort, 2020’s Ohms, Moreno has been present for all of the band’s career, through the good times and the bad. He has consistently defended them from pigeonholing, and it was he who had the most significant impact on creating the record hailed as their masterpiece, 2000’s White Pony. An astute musician and captivating performer, there are many reasons why he is one of the most revered figures in modern rock.
Given that Moreno has been there through it all with Deftones, the question of what is his favourite album out of their nine has long been a question of fans’ lips. Luckily for us, in 2020, just after the release of Ohms, he put the questions to bed forever. He named their second album, 1997’s Around the Fur, as the one album he cherishes most. Boasting classics such as ‘My Own Summer (Shove It)‘, ‘Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)’ and ‘Lhabia’, it’s not hard to understand why. It’s the bridge between the more punishing sensibility of their early years and the experimentation that was to follow.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Apple Music show about Ohms, Moreno discussed the band’s history and explained how he believes Around the Fur will always be their best effort. “Honestly, I still think that record will always be my favourite record,” Moreno said. “One of the main reasons why… For one, we were pretty young. We were probably late, maybe mid-20s then, something like that. But we were on fire.”
“There’s something about it that’s really, really special,” he continued. “And then we had a lot of attention obviously, but I don’t think it affected like as far as in a negative way at least of like, ‘Oh, we need to do,’ like all of that stress of, ‘Oh, we need to make something that’s going to be up to par.’
“It was like I was looking at the record before it going, ‘Oh, we’re about to crush that. I don’t even care about that.’ I was just so excited to show people what was to come, you know? And I think we all were. It just one of those things where we definitely captured lightning in a bottle, like straight-up”, the frontman concluded.
