An album full of anthems of the Deftones. Almost all the songs have such a dense atmosphere (not least because of Chino Moreno's soulful and yet sublime vocals), that they are more like hymns instead of rock songs. This can be seen right at the opening title "Hole in the Earth". First come the usual hard Introduction riffs and suddenly the song turns into a melody-heavy piece of music in which the band is quickly apparent tried many new things. Overall, the band puts on melodies namely rather than value to the otherwise usual hardness, which may have been given the self-titled predecessor also not a bad idea. This was indeed more influenced by hard groove riffs. By contrast, there is at titles like "Beware" mostly calm, in which the band can play all their facets, especially Chino who vocally retrieves peak performance here (which he often can not implement live in the way). Of course, this may, the hard tracks like "Rapture" or "Rats! Rats! Rats!" not missing, where Chino may screech and the band extensively powerful skin in the strings, but they make it, as usual, imaginative and not play one and the same reef down to the end. Complicated Breaks provide not only innovative riffs for some surprises. The most unusual thing about this album is that this time an instrumental is present ("U, U, D, D, L, R, L, R, A, B, Select, Start" in relation to a Game Boy password), what acts also by rest and atmosphere. All band members can shine here, especially those who are in charge of the guitars and the drums.
The only thing that prevents me from a 5 star rating, are 1-2 tracks which I unfortunately see as filler. But just as I'm used to it by the Deftones, these pieces ignite in me probably even in 1 or 2 years. Until then, ranging from 4 stars for a successful wiedermal Deftoneswerk.
