Review of Koi No Yokan

"The pieces are very different from each other, not heavier or more lenses, but more dynamic. Go in many different directions. And 'heavy but beautiful. "
You're right Chino, "Koi no yokan" is a heavy disk, but nice. And, more importantly, is a record of the Deftones in all respects. To think that a band is able to pull off a good seventh disc being able to explore even a sound that is apparently not change almost anything, it is science fiction for anyone. For anyone but the Deftones: they have invented this sound, grown, turned from the top down. And they are the only ones who can handle it, do not forget. Seven album? Yes, this is, new stuff? Not much. He feels that Moreno has imported something from Crosses (more than a spin-off side project), you perceive by certain arrangements and how he withstands the chorus. "Koi no yokan" lies somewhere between "Deftones" and "Saturday night wrist", continuing at the same time the marked line with the previous "Diamond Eyes", the same producer, Nick Raskulinecz, similar mood: heavy, but nice. Mind you, it is no coincidence that they are mentioned in a row the last three albums released, in strict chronological order. From there, the Deftones have come, that's their way. Publish in 1995 with almost mathematical rigor an album every two / three years. They know who they are and know where they want to go, without asking too many questions. Do not ask, for example if, by chance, after almost twenty years of honorable service maybe it's time to do something different. No, because the Deftones are masters in making the Deftones: have a potential limitation of the greatest of the virtues. What a great band ...
"Koi no yokan", in English "Love's premonition" has eleven pieces and start immediately in the fifth with an opening martial such as "Swerve city", with a mix of power pounding melody and ethereal years is the hallmark of Deftones, solidly built along the Moreno / Delgado / Cunningham. In "Romantic Dreams" feels rather heavy-handed duo of Carpenter / Vega, the latter now fully integrated into the songwriting process of the group of which he can be considered the backbone. Chi Cheng is and will always be the holder of the chair, at least from an emotional point of view. The substitute, however, for once, does not regret the teacher role. Chapter individuals. "7 Words", "My Own Summer (Shove It)", "Digital bath", "Minerva", "Hole in the Earth", "Diamond Eyes". And today, "Leathers". Excruciating, sudden, an explosion uncontrollable. Here it is not about one or the other: in a piece like "Leathers" can you hear the Deftones complete, an extra time for the occasion.
"Poltergeist" is a tirade of neck hard and pure, "Entombed" the centerpiece "Crosses" of the lot, a ballad synthetic tones strongly melancholy: "From the day you arrived / I've Remained by your side / in chains, entombed / placed inside / safe and sound / shapes and colors are all I see / On the day you arrived / I Became your device ". There is a friend hovering between life and death. One of the band. This is the voice of those around him. Voice back to be angry in the first "graphic nature", then "Tempest", like "Leathers" without a doubt the best part of the disc. Here, the sound becomes darker, layered, echoes and reverberations that create a lament over six minutes, a veritable storm of sound that anticipates little "Gauze", right uppercut to the face brought with surgical precision, followed inevitably by the proverbial caress. Verse and chorus in great balance. The last three pieces finally pick up this or that concept has already been stated in the rest of the album: the metal dry "Rosemary" weigh the tone of "Entombed" bringing the mind at the time of Adrenaline, on his tail tones vaguely alternative then grafted the opening words of "goon squad", a slow crescendo that explodes in anger again pressing just to make up for the mouth to view the last piece in the lineup, "What happened to you?", needless to say a bittersweet emotional ups and downs called to close accounts dissolving all in black.
Amazing how every time the Deftones are able to forgive everyone and everything in its place with a disarming ease. "Koi no yokan" versus "Diamond Eyes" is less impulsive, much more controlled. A hard driven by universal forces such as love and anger, anguish and redemption, perfectly balanced in an equilibrium that only a band at the top of maturation is able to manage. The confirmation of a sound apparently inexhaustible, inimitable. The Deftones have returned to impart yet another lesson. Back in school: they are the leaders of it all.

TRACKLIST

"Swerve city"
"Romantic Dreams"
"Leathers"
"Poltergeist"
"Entombed"
"Graphic Nature"
"Tempest"
"Gauze"
"Rosemary"
"Goon squad"
"What happened to you?"