(Reprise)
Before System of a Down claimed the title of metal's most experimental weirdos, the Deftones were filling albums with a combination of vicious power riffs, random noise bursts, and a medium-size dose of pretension. In 2008, their bass player was left in a coma following a car accident, and in a way, the Deftones' sixth album is the group's reaction to it. Diamond Eyes sounds a lot like other Deftones records: moody, violent, dreamy. But it's their most optimistic album — signs of light in the darkness, if you will. "Time will see us realign," Chino Moreno sings in the opening title track, which layers piercing guitars over a half-hazy art-rock soundscape. The best songs here — "Royal," "Rocket Skates" — fuse and streamline the Deftones' past 15 years into an album that's the band's most celebratory and mournful.
— Gallucci
