Deftones' Chino Moreno On The "Thrash Metal" Riff In Urantia

As part of an extensive two-hour Deftones special on this week's BBC Radio 1 Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter, the band have gone through many of the songs on stunning new album Ohms.

Speaking to Dan about Urantia in particular, frontman Chino Moreno explains the heavy riff that opens the track, and how guitarist Stephen 'Stef' Carpenter came up with a thrash metal-esque line – something that the Sacramento alt.metallers have never really delved into much before, despite being fans.

Quiz: How well do you know Deftones' lyrics?

"The song itself was a trip, because it’s probably one of the most – especially the way it starts out – I mean musically it’s like reminiscent of thrash metal," Chino explains (via ThePRP). "(Imitates opening riff) That reminds me of Death Angel or straight-up Bay Area thrash from when we were growing up.

"When Stephen was playing that, when he came up with that, right away I was just like, 'Yes! This is so like something that we all love but we’ve never really done.'"

Diving into the lyrics – something the frontman so rarely does – Chino continues: "I live on a lake, or right by this big lake. I ride my bike around it a couple times a week [or] walk around it. It’s like a seven mile kind of loop. But I talk about circling around the lake, this is all like literal things that I was seeing from like digging into the ashtray and pulling out someone’s cigarette and lighting it and taking a drag – very descriptive kind of things.

"Although it’s all made up, it’s kind of fun sometimes when you can do that as far as be very, very descriptive. I don’t do that all the time. That’s kind of something that I really don’t do that much. Sometimes my lyrics all look too camouflaged. So sometimes to be very descriptive is kind of outside of my comfort zone in a way."

Ohms is currently at Number Five in the midweek UK album charts – which will result in the band's third UK Top 10 if it stays there. If you haven't already done so, get your copy here.

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