"It's as if overnight the world decided Deftones were the most culturally important band since Nirvana." Alternative metal's original baddies get hot and heavy as they kick off their UK tour in Birmingham

Deftones are long overdue their flowers. Nu metal innovators - so much so they basically ditched the scene right before it tanked with 2000's boundary-pushing White Pony - they've found themselves in the enviable position of a late career bloom. The rise of -gaze affixed bands spawned in their image has been termed "Deftonescore" (Love Is Noise, Thornhill, Moodring, Split Chain), while metal's sexiest new subgenre baddiecore (Sleep Token, Bad Omens) could hardly have existed without their sensual tones. It's as if the whole world decided overnight Deftones were the most culturally important band since Nirvana.

Which goes some way to explain how Birmingham's NEC is awash in a sea of greebos, goths and generational metalheads on a drizzly Thursday night in February. The BP Pulse Live arena is already filling up by the time openers Drug Church come on. Sounding like someone told Sum 41 to be more like Bad Religion, their fusion of sunny, bouncy beats and thumping hardcore riffs is perfect to get the crowd moving. Vocalist Patrick Kindlon's insistence that the band is built for crowdsurfing proves true as bodies fly over the barriers and by the time the band go off to Weed Pin, the atmosphere is pure electric.

Hip hop and metal have been crossing over for almost 40 years now, but it's still astonishing to see a full UK arena of metalheads waving their arms wildly for Denzel Curry. The oppressive, industrial beats certainly don't hurt, nor does the Drowning Pool tease to tee up Hit The Floor.

But it's testament to just how much times have changed that Denzel is met with a rabid enthusiasm when a little under 20 years ago the likes of Lethal Bizzle were bottled heavily at Download Festival for daring to step out in front of a metal crowd. Of course, it's not just hip hop infiltrating and influencing metal; Curry shouts out Zack De La Rocha at the end of the set before unleashing the most incendiary, howling Bulls On Parade we might've ever heard.

If Deftones' recorded output is defined by sensual build-ups and ecstatic release, live they're an altogether hungrier (and hornier) beast. There's no big build-up or theatrical flourish; the shimmering notes of Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) start and the room shrieks in utter euphoria. Sped up and harder hitting, Chino Moreno twists and contorts, wailing like he's excorcising some almighty succubus.

There's no pause. Locked Club, Rocket Skates and Diamond Eyes fly by in a torrent of crashing riffs and pure, animal intensity, songs colliding into each other like a high-speed pile-up on the motorway. The first time we do get a breath, we're plunged straight back into the gravel-toned bass of ecdysis. Even when the show stops briefly for a couple of medical emergencies, the atmosphere never really lets up.

There's no massive production to speak of, just a big screen projecting imagery and some LED structures around the stage that create some sublimely trippy visuals. Singalongs aren't of the "belt it out with the whole arena" variety, fans generally singing to themselves with a couple of big exceptions - Change (In The House Of Flies) and My Own Summer (Shove It). Even so, Deftones show feels just as captivating as anything you'd get from the likes of Tool, Iron Maiden or Sabaton.

Just when you think it's hit an orgiastic climax, My Own Summer sending the room to fever pitch, Deftones somehow find a way to go even further. 7 Words is utterly apoplectic, Chino going from barely restrained animal to unhinged goblin sexgod, leaving the crowd to stagger out as if in a post-orgasmic daze. On the way out, we half expect to see Chino propped up outside the venue smoking a cigarette, "Hope that was as good for you as it was for us". No complaints here. Vive la nu metal renaissance.

Deftones UK tour continues tonight in Glasgow. The band play Outbreak London on August 23.

Deftones setlist @ BP Pulse Live, Birmingham, February 12 2026

1. Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)
2. Locked Club
3. Rocket Skates
4. Diamond Eyes
5. Ecdysis
6. Digital Bath
7. My Mind Is A Mountain
8. Souvenir
9. Swerve City
10. Rosemary
11. Cut Hands
12. Infinite Source
13. Sextape
14. Hole In The Earth
15. Change (In The House Of Flies)
16. Genesis
17. Milk Of The Madonna
18. Cherry Waves
19. My Own Summer (Shove It)
20. 7 Words