Hear how The Cure’s Robert Smith has re-imagined Deftones’ classic Teenager

Deftones
(Image credit: Press)

A re-imagining of the masterful White Pony album, the long-awaited Deftones remix album Black Stallion is set for release on December 11 via Warners. Having already shared Linkin Park frontman Mike Shinoda’s reworking of Passenger and the Purity Ring remix of Knife Prty, the Sacramento quintet have now made The Cure frontman Robert Smith’s version of Teenager available. 

“It’s amazing to hear Robert rework one of our songs and sneak his voice in there,” Deftones frontman Chino Moreno tells NME. “If you’d have told me that when I was 15-years-old, I would have lost my fucking mind and not believed a word you were saying. It was a dream.”

Deftones have long expressed their admiration for The Cure, and the quintet covered the British band’s If Only Tonight We Could Sleep, when invited to take part in the Robert Smith-curated Meltdown festival in London in 2018.

Inspired by the sound-collage aesthetic of fellow Sacramento-area native DJ Shadow, Deftones initially wanted him to remix the entirety of White Pony. Though that plan never came to fruition 20 years later, the multi-collaborator Black Stallion set offers an intriguing alternate angle on one of the century’s most important metal albums.

 Deftones’ Black Stallion track listing:

1. Feiticeira (Clams Casino remix)
2. Digital Bath (DJ Shadow remix)
3. Elite (Blanck Mass remix)
4. Rx Queen (Salva remix)
5. Street Carp (Phantogram remix)
6. Teenager (Robert Smith remix)
7. Knife Prty (Purity Ring remix)
8. Korea (Trevor Jackson remix)
9. Passenger (Mike Shinoda remix)
10. Change (In the House of Flies) (Tourist remix)
11. Pink Maggit (Squarepusher remix)

Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.