As if a career peak four decades in wasn’t enough, Deftones unleash a top-tier masterpiece on album number 10.
For all its qualities – from its powerhouse musicianship to its nebulous lyricism – it’s unlikely 2020’s Ohms was anyone’s favourite Deftones record. A response to 2016’s famously misunderstood Gore, Ohms’ attempt to cater to all factions of the fanbase resulted in a record stifled by trying to please everyone. It’s still really good, mind. As is Gore.
Private Music is a different beast altogether, though, and one with its eyes set only on satisfying its authors – yet still manages to encompass everything you could want from a Deftones record. All the elements are present and correct, but they're imbued with an excitable energy and sense of abandon we haven’t heard from the band for a long time, enabling some refreshing pivots, twists and detours from what we’ve come to expect.
This 10th album arrives five years on from Ohms, the longest gap between Deftones releases to date. During that time the Sacramento veterans’ ethereal influence has been mined to grandstanding success by Sleep Token on three records, as well as acting as guiding star to breakout stars like Bad Omens and Dayseeker.
Chino Moreno and his bandmates aren’t here to try to defend their crown as the downtuned daddies of sonic sexiness, though – as the current spike in their popularity, 37 years into their career, means they’re getting their dues like never before. Besides, if your record features a moment like the one during six-minute-plus epic Souvenir, when Chino purrs ‘Keep warm here beside me holding you tightly / We gaze at the night, we own it, it’s divine’ amidst an atmospheric squall, then you’re operating in a field of one.
When you’re best in class, there’s nothing wrong with copying your own homework on occasion, as they do on My Mind Is A Mountain. It’s the languid cousin of Rocket Skates from 2010’s Diamond Eyes – the producer of which, Nick Raskulinecz, is back in the fold for the first time since 2012’s Koi No Yokan. On his watch, My Mind Is A Mountain proves a fascinating piece of revisionism, reminding us of the broad church that constitutes Deftones’ sound and how the slightest tweak can overhaul it entirely, but still result in something mesmeric.
The producer’s work here is superb, giving requisite space to arrangements to make them expansive as well as big, and providing an epic feel even to moments of delicate intimacy. He also masterfully wields the heft of Stef Carpenter’s guitar work, which provides Private Music’s irrepressible forward momentum, best illustrated by the pacy cXz and Milk Of The Madonna.
While Stef’s role as a touring member of Deftones has been reduced given his reluctance to travel outside of the United States, his efforts here vindicate any stipulations he has, being among the finest of his career. Perhaps that’s because he’s actively re-embracing the old school, as on Ecdysis and Infinite Source, where those rasping riffs recall the finest moments from his band’s past – back when they were erroneously but unsurprisingly considered part of the nu-metal boom – without ever sounding anything other than fresh.
Stef’s parts rarely sound anything other than dense either, whether the song necessitates it or not. Halfway through I Think About You All The Time, a romantic number of narcotic magnetism, he unleashes an almighty groove, backed by bassist Fred Sablan, that you’d imagine would upend something so elegant – yet somehow it works.
The fact even the bold gambles come good is indicative of the much mythologised push-pull dynamic between Chino and Stef reaching its most finest equilibrium since 2000’s masterpiece White Pony. In doing so, that perhaps sets Private Music above Diamond Eyes, their mid-career renaissance. So while Locked Club and Souvenir possess dreamy elements to set minds adrift – informed, as ever, by the likes of The Cure and Cocteau Twins – that molasses thick guitar is never far away, heaving you out of your blissful state.
Chino, meanwhile, sounds like a man with an MO to do whatever the fuck he wants, which he grabs with both hands. You’d be hard pressed to find a Deftones record with greater vocal variety – ranting, whooping, wailing, whispering and, of course, screaming – with Cut Hands and Metal Dream worthy of special mention for including all of the above between the two of them.
Albums as great as Private Music don’t come along every day – they do, however, appear every few years when Deftones release them. But even in the scheme of one of modern rock’s most consistent and treasured back catalogues, Private Music is in the upper most tier, a record that succeeds where its predecessor didn’t quite. Essentially, then, Ohms walked so that Private Music could run, jump, and soar.
Verdict: 5/5
For fans of: Sleep Token, †††, Dayseeker
Private Music is released on August 22 via Reprise / Warner. In early 2026, Deftones will return to the UK and Europe for an arena tour with Denzel Curry and Drug Church.
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