Review Summary: With Koi No Yokan, Deftones master the art of blending textures heavy and light, foreboding but gorgeous, and organic yet ethereal.
For a band that has existed for over two decades, Deftones is incredibly consistent. Hailing from Sacramento, CA, the five-piece outfit have dished out some dazzling compositions, the finest of which is perhaps their 2001 tour de force,
White Pony. While their first LP,
Adrenaline was an enjoyable yet embryonic release, it wasn't until
White Pony when
Deftones truly started to unearth their boundless potential for songwriting and musical creativity. Dabbling in shoegaze, electronica and alt. metal flavors, they've stretched the limits of conventional metal, and with Koi No Yokan, Deftones continue their formidable streak of excellence.
The Japanese phrase "Koi No Yokan" translates to "the premonition of love", an apt title for the record as it is difficult not to admire.Â*Serving as a follow-up to 2010's striking
Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan features the band's intrinsic sound, yet its execution and unique semblance separates it from the band's previous works. Clocking in at a modest 52 minutes,
Koi No Yokan is a beautiful coalescence of Deftones' brutal sound and their dreamy ambient textures. Producer Nick Raskulinecz does a fine job meshing the album's elements into a razor-toothed package filled with lush strokes and ethereal nuances. Be it the bludgeoning doom of
Gauze or the gorgeous synth ventures in
Rosemary and
Goon Squad, the album sees Deftones join their old and new sound together, forming a fascinating piece of metal magic.
Opener
Swerve City does a fine job of preparing the listener for what's to come, despite being under 3 minutes in length. Its fast paced albeit straightforward riff is combined with a celestial bass groove and an even more entrancing guitar solo. It's a perfect blend of the band's polar opposites - bruising riffs and delicious atmospheric touches; a blend that is further elaborated throughout the album. Turntablist Frank Delgado is perhaps the group's secret weapon, and
Koi No Yokan arguably features some of his most focused work, recalling the dreamy instances of
Saturday Night Wrist. His atmospheric embellishments keep the record fresh and exciting, most notably in the album's softer, more contemplative moments, like the cosmic space-rock of
Entombed. The opposing forces of frontman Chino Moreno's smooth croons and guitarist Stephen Carpenter's monstrous riffs are at play in most of the album's duration, though the record does feature plenty of piercing howls and shrieks from the vocalist.
As an alternative metal record,
Koi No Yokan features some powerful, booming standouts. The dissonant guitar phrases, synchronized handclaps and shifting vocal styles in
Poltergeist make it a pulverizing yet deceptively elegant highlight. The album's lead single
Leathers features an equally bombastic approach, and Moreno's astounding shrieks coupled with the ever-changing melody makes for another in-your-face standout. However, some tracks feature a more gentle, pensive feel in contrast to the album's sharp edges, especially in the album's finest offering,
Rosemary. [i]Rosemary[i]'s jagged, heavy moments coexist superbly with its dreamy synth loops, whereas
Gauze's ethereal chorus is much more forgiving than its thunderous main riff.
Tempest, was made the album's second single and with good reason, as it's another catchy, pummeling song that mixes the metal and ambient textures successfully. It's this juxtaposition of light and heavy that makes the album truly stand out in Deftones' impressive discography. Dream-pop infused numbers like
Romantic Dreams and closer
What HappenedÂ*To You, while not as structurally appealing as the aforementioned tracks, are nonetheless pleasing listens that offer a breath of fresh air.
With Koi No Yokan, Deftones successfully juggle textures of alternative metal, space rock, dream pop and ambient, and deliver a haunting and cohesive seventh LP. With its clean-cut, slick production, each track is conjoined into a thick blanket of mesmerising brutality and beauty. The paunchy atmospherics injected into the furious metal sparks make this album a truly rewarding listen, and while there are no bad tracks persay, even the structurally lacking songs like
Graphic Nature and
What Happened to You contain some gorgeous sections. Is the album better than
White Pony? That doesn't really matter, as
Koi No Yokan is a majestic and scintillating seventh LP from a band that shows no signs of aging.
Recommended Tracks:-
Rosemary
Poltergeist
Leathers
Swerve City
Tempest
