It seems like the upcoming Deftones record, Gore, was a record where the band rediscovered how they work with each other. Last week, we learned that guitarist Stephen Carpenter needed some convincing to play on the record.
At the time, Carpenter said:
I think my proudest thing about my guitar playing on this record is just playing on the record because I didn't want to play on the record to begin with. It wasn't until way later once I actually got into it. I look at all the songs on the record and they were all a challenge for me to get in to.
He noted how it was hard to get into the material the band was writing at the time. Coincidentally, a new interview with Deftones frontman Chino Moreno has surfaced, and when asked what he liked to do for fun, he took a friendly jab at his guitarist:
“You mean like competitive fun? Make records with Stephen. It’s pretty damned competitive. In a way, it’s a lot of this [referring to table tennis game,] back and forth.”
If I am allowed to speculate, I believe that the "softer" or perhaps "less metal" direction of the new album was spearheaded by Chino, as it's very reminiscent of some of his projects outside of Deftones, and perhaps he and Stephen were at odds as to what the music should sound like. In the same interview, Chino mentions how he avoided playing guitar on the new album until it was absolutely necessary:
“Oh god. I think my proudest thing about my guitar playing on this record is just playing on the record because I didn’t want to play on the record to begin with. It wasn’t until way later once I actually got into it. I look at all the songs on the record and they were all a challenge for me to get in to.”
Could it be possible that he decided to pick up the axe after protests from Stephen? Either way, I sure hope whatever underlying tension there is in the band dies down before their big US tour later this year.
Gore comes out April 8th. Hear the first single, "Prayers/Triangles," here. Pre-order the album for as low as $9.49 on Amazon.com.
