One of the many highly-anticipated new albums that was announced in 2019 was Deftones’ follow-up to 2016’s massive Gore. But as with so many upcoming releases, the possibility of the record being released in 2020 started getting questioned as the coronavirus changed the cultural landscape as we know it. Now, however, Deftones have begun teasing something new — and it looks like it might be the new album at last.
First, the band black out all of their social media icons on Friday, replacing them with plain black images. They then changed the name of their website to ‘deftones.com/0925’ — which could be the band suggesting that they have something in the works for September 25th, which is a Friday.
Finally, Deftones also posted the following cryptic teaser video to their Twitter:
— Deftones (@deftones) August 16, 2020
This still isn’t enough to say what exactly Deftones are up to — but given how much hype was circulating the new album last year, and the drastic measures taken all in quick succession, one can’t help but wonder if the new record is imminent.
The last information received about Deftones new album was in this May, when frontman Chino Moreno commented on how ther band had written the record in advance.
“We started the record last summer and we … I mean, even before that we were taking our time and just doing at our leisure. We just started the mixing process a couple of months back,” explained Chino. “It worked out as far as doing it remote. Our producer, Terry Date who’s doing the record, he’s in Seattle. As a band, we’re all spread out anyways. He’s just been working on it and then sending us stuff and we’ll send it back with notes and this and that, whatever.
“Usually it would be a little more expedited had we all been able to be in the same room at the same time, but it’s working out and he just finished his first full round of mixing the whole record and now it’s going back to little things and particular things on each song. So we’re using the time, trying to at least, by still working on the record and there’s no rush obviously for us to get out and do anything. So we’re just taking our time with it.
“We moved out of Sacramento maybe 20 years ago or so, it seems like almost now,” he added. “But everybody’s been placed all around the U.S. and so we’ve been working in this digital age for a while. I mean, as far as writing the music, it’s been good. Everybody gets together and we lock ourselves in a room and we write together, which I think that’s the important part, that we’re not just sending ideas over the internet. We’re actually writing music together. But once we do that, everybody steps away and goes back into their own little worlds, and then we take a tally on what’s this and what’s that and then we can work that way. So it’s worked out for us.”
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Words by Chris Krovatin