Format-wise, Deftones is quite similar to the band’s last album, White Pony. Many of the melodies that lead singer Chino Moreno has created for this album are reminiscent of their previous studio effort. Nothing on Deftones is a self-parody of White Pony, but there is a marked similarity between the two records. The album’s first single “Minerva” is seemingly the newer version of White Pony’s first single “Change (In The House Of Flies),” both alternating between softly sung verses and hard and heavy choruses. Now that frontman Moreno shares some of the guitar duties with full time gee-tar player Stephen Carpenter, some lighter strummed chords have worked their way into the Deftones music over the last two albums and “Minerva” is a prime example of the Deftones expanding sound.

Turntableist and keyboard wiz Frank Delgado, now a permanent fixture in the band after joining the Deftones on their second album, Around the Fur, gets a chance to take the spotlight on the track “Lucky You.” This soft, techno-inspired melodic ballad is also featured on the soundtrack to the newest Wachowski Brothers blockbuster, “The Matrix Reloaded.” The space age sounds created by Delgado as Moreno softly sings are a perfect match for the stylish action adventure film and is also a welcome addition on Deftones. To refer back to White Pony, this song is reminiscent of “Teenager,” a song that was Delgado’s first opportunity to do more than just provide back-up scratches and keyboards while Carpenter riffs away like he’s doing his best Slayer impression.

If you want to feel the Deftones power at full throttle, “this one goes to 11”-style, you’ll have plenty of chances on this album. All of the songs rock hard in their own way, but “Needles and Pins,” “Deathblow” and “Battle-axe” are metal standouts. The song titles even sound like good metal songs, don’t they? The album cover says it all, a human skull on a bed of roses. Hard and soft, dark and light, the Deftones mix it up like none other.

Many may feel that Deftones is too short. However, I’d rather hear a band that I like play 11 songs that are all good than have two great tracks and a bunch of filler. Just to make sure that the fans get their money’s worth, and to give consumers a reason to not just download all of the songs from the Internet, this CD features one of the best “enhanced” sections that I have ever seen on an album. Small video clips follow each of the band members around town for a day, giving fans an inside look into the lives of the Deftones. We also get to see inside the writing sessions for Deftones as they write, joke, play and record tracks for the album, as well as various photo collections from the studio and the road. It was most interesting to see the writing sessions after hearing the full album several times, as I was able to hear different parts that are not accentuated on the finished recording as they tracked some of the individual parts. The disc doesn’t have the most in-depth documentary footage, but all of these little extras add something that is sorely missing from many other albums today.

Sonically, Deftones has some flaws, with a low end that gets muddy and high-end tones that seem to distort a little on virtually every system that I’ve played the album on, from small Sony headphones to my floor-standing Monitor Series Paradigm speakers. Terry Date, who has produced all of the Deftones previous studio albums, is again behind the mixing console on Deftones. Despite the raw power and energy he captures, I have yet to hear a Deftones album with the necessary amount of polish that it is going to take for the mainstream pubic to start really “feeling” the Deftones. The recording almost gets in the way of the music, yet once you listen to the album 10 to 15 times, your mind starts to fill in the sonic blanks that are left by this raw recording and mixing style. In a way, this adds to the staying power of this album, because if it was all laid out there in the open with nothing to hunt for audibly, the album could be too sterile and boring. As torn as I am between loving the album and not being 100 percent happy with the recording quality, I wouldn’t let sonics scare you away from the album.

In my opinion, there isn’t is a band out there today making music that combines the raw metal edge with soft melodies, guttural vocals, experimental song structures and new sounds better than Deftones. They took their garage band, skateboard, rap-rock sound, flipped it around, molded it for 15 years and turned themselves into the metal version of Depeche Mode. Enjoy the silence… and the screams.