Band's Maverick Records Debut Album example essay topic

California is home to a thriving music scene and Sacramento's hard-hitting Deftones play a major role. The four members of Deftones have been friends since childhood and have breathed life into the otherwise quiet suburban streets for the past four years with a vast amount of local gigs. Beyond Sacramento, they " ve unleashed their unique brand of music by hitting the road and building a following in the Bay Area, Reno and L.A., touring with everyone from Bad Brains and KoRn to L 7 and Quicksand. After four years of persistent gigging and juggling their day jobs, they worked their way from a demo-to-demo existence to a record deal with Maverick.

"When you " re a new band, it's hard to convince clubs in different cities to let you play and pay you -- it's not like bands can just travel anywhere at the drop of a hat", says guitarist Stephen Carpenter. "I mean, nobody minds playing for free half the time, but when it comes to travelling you still have to pay for costs. So it adds up". In the Deftones' case, it has definitely paid off. The band's Maverick records debut album: ADRENALINE -- which features such songs as "Nosebleed,"Lifter,"Engine no. 9" and the maniacal "7 Words" -- bristles with frustration and rage.

To quote Request magazine in its review of the album, "Flesh-peeling, tuned-down riffs form the backdrop for vocals that range from cryptic whispers to bone chilling screams". Producer Terry Date (White Zombie, Soundgarden, and Pantera) captures the feel of the band in the studio without taking from the raw energy that is their trademark, recording much of it live. Though he can screech and howl as gut wrenching ly as his most anxiety-ridden contemporaries, (barring KoRn's Jonathon Davis) charismatic frontman Chino Moreno's vocals also have a melodic quality -- notably on "Root" and the surprise l lth track "Fist" (taken from one of the band's earlier demos). That same melodic style often creeps into Carpenter's guitar for interludes of tunefulness.

For the recording of the brutal "7 Words", Deftones's inger Chino Moreno crouched inside a Styrofoam cave that was erected in the recording studio, screaming "Suck Suck Suck Suck" -- - Terry Date felt Moreno took this bizarre approach after the traditional method of singing it in the control booth didn't get to the heart of the song's chaos, confusion and humour. As Moreno told the Daily Insider national rock wire service, he only sings "Suck" in the song, but the sound distortion makes some people, including radio programmers, think they " re hearing another word (use your imagination). "I think that one of the best things we have going for us is our dynamics", Moreno says. "There's never too much of anything. It's not like there's a real heavy song and then a real soft song. Each of our songs contain many different levels".

Just as the band refuses to be stereotyped musically, they also remain lyrically diverse, preferring to express themselves more in a true to life fashion. Like many of their influences -- the band cites a wide variety ranging from Jane's Addiction to Bad Brains to Smashing Pumpkins -- the band never stops long enough to be pinned down into a musical genre, much like their Bakersfield contemporaries KoRn. The two bands (who have a similar, yet different sound) have rejected a lot of music genre names put to them by music journalists for the sound they are putting out, such as: "Rap Rock,"Hip Rock,"Rap Metal" and (most ludicrously) "Hip Hop Metal Rock". since both bands styles are so diverse and have elements of Hip Hop, Funk, Metal, Rock, and Punk, they have rejected all the summarising monikers and prefer to be known as just KoRn and Deftones. Which keeps their loyal fan base happy, as no gimmicks are used to sell the music.

Deftones released their second album: Around The Fur in 1997. It went gold, compared to the 50,000 selling Adrenaline and pushed the band further into the spotlight. Spawning the singles "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) ", and "My Own Summer (Shove It) " which were featured on MTV and gained quite a lot of exposure for such a non-mainstream band. Deftones are coming back to England (they played reading, and a few other gigs as part of the vans warped tour over here in '98) late this year or in early 2000 to play some shows, I am definitely going to catch them live again, and I suggest you do to. Deftones forthcoming album: "The White Pony" is set for release late this year, they are currently featured on the soundtrack of the hit film, The Matrix.