Deftones went out of comfort zone for Gore

Deftones frontman Chino Moreno says the band went out of their comfort zone during recording sessions for their upcoming eighth album.

Gore is released on April 8 via Warner Bros Records and Moreno says it marks a departure from the sound on their previous two albums – 2010’s Diamond Eyes and 2012 effort Koi No Yokan.

He tells Kerrang: “We recorded this record in a different way. I’m not saying we went in with any preconceived ideas as such, but I do think we went in knowing that we wanted to make this record a little different from the last two.

“It’s still a Deftones record – we didn’t really have any new influences that changed that. But it’s an expansion of what we were comfortable with. And it’s important to get out of your comfort zone sometimes with the music — just to be excited.

“It’s got a different look. A different shade of colour. I’d say some shade of purple. I don’t know why, but I think it sits somewhere between pink, red and purple. Sometimes when I hear music, I see colour, and when it came time to work on the artwork for this batch of songs, I knew exactly what I wanted.”

He adds: “If you look at the title and the artwork, it’s about a juxtaposition that, for me, is very beautiful. I think Deftones have always flirted with dynamic and that yin-and-yang of things that are provocative and things that are beautiful.

“Where our last two album titles were a lot more optimistic, I think this title is intentionally different. This record is very different.”

Deftones made Gore’s opening track Prayers/Triangles available to stream this month. The band have a number of tour dates lined up for this year, including an appearance at Download on June 11.

DEFTONES GORE TRACKLIST

  1. Prayers/Triangles
  2. Acid Hologram
  3. Doomed User
  4. Geometric Headdress
  5. Hearts/Wires
  6. Pittura Infamante
  7. Xenon
  8. (L)mirl
  9. Gore
  10. Phantom Bride
  11. Rubicon

DEFTONES LIVE DATES 2016

Mar 05: Costa Mesa Musink Festival, CA
Mar 16: Mission Never Say Never Festival, TX
Mar 19: San Antonio Lonestar Events Center, TX
Mar 20: Dallas South Side Ballroom, TX
Mar 22: Houston Revention Music Center, TX
Mar 24: Lubbock Lonestar Pavilion, TX
May 08: Kannapolis Carolina Rebellion, NC
May 13: Atlanta Shaky Knees Festival, GA
Jun 03: London SSE Arena Wembley, UK
Jun 04: Mendig Rock AM Ring, Germany
Jun 05: Nuremberg Rock IM Park, Germany
Jun 10: Paris Download Festival, France
Jun 11: Donington Download Festival, UK
Jun 12: Nickelsdorf Nova Rock, Austria
Jun 14: Cologne Palladium, Germany
Jun 15: Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany
Jun 17: Aarhus Northside Festival, Denmark
Jun 18: Reykjavik Secret Solstice, Iceland

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.