Deftones' Latest Record 'Ohms' is the Band's Most Electrifying In a While

Usually at some point during the summer each year, I start to get a bit too busy to continue pumping out lengthy reviews of the endless stream of new music that just never stops dropping. It can be a lot to keep track of when you write hundreds and hundreds of reviews a year as a hobby on top of everything else going on in life, so it usually takes a pretty gargantuan release to eventually get me back on the grind. This is that release for 2020. I’m someone who almost exclusively wears band shirts, and I have more Deftones shirts than any other band. That being said, even I didn’t expect this record to be anywhere near as impressive and gorgeous as it is. While I’m a huge defender of the criminally underrated Gore, which brought to the table a much hazier and different sound than the band has ever delivered prior, I still figured that the band had already put out all their classic records. After sitting through this beautiful record, I feel absolutely stupid for ever doubting Chino and the crew. It’s hard for me to even look at this as a late career gem, as Deftones don’t even feel like they’re at a late stage in their career. They feel like they’re just getting started, as they always have. They’re continuing to pump out the same absolute fantastic brand of music that no other band in history has been able to do anywhere near as good as them, and Ohms is no exception.

The best way I can describe this album goes hand in hand with its title. This entire record feels like it’s an electric current flowing through your ears. The staticky ethos of it all creates an electrifying atmosphere that feels so much more wondrous and alive than the signature spacey atmosphere we’re used to from the Deftones. That’s not to say their spotless discography can’t be described with the words “wondrous and alive”, but this record in particular has a certain upbeat energy to it that feels so much more excitable. If you poked Saturday Night Wrist with a stick it would probably give you a depressed stare and maybe bare its teeth, but if you poked Ohms it would bite your head clean off. This record sounds like somebody slowed and stretched the sound of an electrical spark into a 46 minute album and this was the result. It’s like all of these sounds already existed inside the sonic presence of an electrical current, and all Deftones did was reach in and show that sound to the world.

The guitars crackle to life in a way that I’ve never heard in an album before, snarling with a certain element of ignition that’s unique to the band’s array of classic drop-tuned licks. The percussion drives the whole record absolutely fantastically, and the bass lines from Sergio Vega are the most immaculate he has ever put to tape. That’s coming from someone who can totally buy into the argument that Koi No Yokan is the band’s best album, too. Most shocking of all the performances comes from Chino Moreno himself though, as he’s really changed his style as a vocalist on this record. He is absolutely still the same instantly recognizable and distinct Chino, but his vocals seem to take a much harsher inspiration at points. Tracks like the opener Genesis have much more Blackgaze inspired vocal stylings from him that take on a much higher pitched scream than his usual. Maybe it’s just that aforementioned staticky production style I’m hearing, but he sounds like a different animal on this record and I love it. Every member of the band feels like they’re continuously evolving as musicians on this album, despite already having a 25 year career as a band under their belts. It’s extremely refreshing.

These guys have released well over 100 songs, all pertaining to the same signature Deftones style, yet they are still finding ways to reinvent their sound and bring new ideas to the table at a point in time where any other band would have run out of steam. Tracks like The Spell of Mathematics bring a certain flavor of doom and gloom to the table that not even Deftones have explored quite like this before. It’s an expansive and vast track that offers an incredibly dense atmosphere for your thoughts to sink their teeth into. At the band’s core, their sound revolves around that signature atmosphere that nobody can ever quite put their finger on, and this album consistently finds new ways to tap into that atmosphere. These songs remind us that Deftones’ signature sound is less of just a sound and more of a living, breathing little slice of the universe that you can only mentally tap into when listening to their music. Deftones have always been their own feeling, and these songs continue to expand upon whatever that feeling is in breathtakingly beautiful ways. Whether it’s the crushing dissonance of This Link is Dead, the high-octane fury of Radiant City or the lyrically unreserved mayhem of Genesis, the band never stops introducing their listeners to new feelings altogether throughout this record.

While this is a million times better than any album 25 years into an artist’s career has any right to be, it isn’t without its flaws. That’s not to say there are many though, as this thing really is just about spotless. I think the only structural issue I had with any part of this record whatsoever comes down to some small pacing and tracklisting issues I have when it comes to the last two songs on the album. I definitely think the penultimate track Headless is a super solid cut that I’ve gotten tons of enjoyment out of, but at the same time it might just be the weakest link on the album. It’s the most repetitive and djenty cut on the record, and it feels like the most formulaic and traditional song on here. It’s the only song that sounds like how I expect Deftones to sound, which is obviously not a bad thing since I expect Deftones to sound incredible. However, it does lack a little bit of the refreshing punch of the rest of the album considering it just feels a tiny bit predictable. The closing track, which is also the title track, is the only other one I take any issue with whatsoever. While I’ve grown to absolutely adore the frenetic and upbeat riffs this song has to offer, I think it partially robs the record of a proper closing moment. I think if this one was shifted around into an earlier segment of the album it would’ve fit in absolutely flawlessly, but leaving it as the closing track just doesn’t work in my opinion. This song is one that ends in a way that makes you think something is supposed to come after it, and furthermore it’s the most happy and peppy track on the record. That’s not saying much considering Deftones are never truly happy, but I feel like they could have done better if they ended the project with something else. Honestly, if they had done such a little adjustment as directly switching Ohms with The Spell of Mathematics in the tracklisting, I would be giving this album an absurdly high score like a 9.7 or something. That’s a super small issue at the end of the day, but it’s the kind of problem that can bring an album down from perfect masterpiece levels to just masterpiece levels. Once again, I’m really not complaining since this album is nothing short of all-encompassing and drop-dead gorgeous, but it’s just worth mentioning in any truly honest review.

Deftones aren’t going anywhere. They have consistently continued to prove themselves as a band that has earned every bit of relevance they’ve gained over their career, and that definitely does not stop with their newest release. They are still managing to break new ground within a sound that they essentially invented 25 years in, and in no minor way either. Everything about this record is everything I could ever ask for from a Deftones album in 2020, and I am beyond excited to keep watching this band grow and evolve. They’ve been one of the most important Metal bands to ever walk the planet since the late 90’s, and they’re still putting out material that could have been just as important as their classics decades later. I’m sure Deftones fans would have been overjoyed at just a really decent record from the band, such as Gore, but instead they’ve reset their own bar and given us an album that feels as essential as their best works. Ohms is a brilliant reinvention of the Deftones’ sound, a sound that nobody has, or ever will, truly recreate. The band has outdone expectations for seemingly the hundredth time here, delivering a record that feels as electrifying and exciting as ever. Deftones have once again found a new way to tap into the deepest depths of their listener’s minds, continuing to expand upon the hazy and heavy pocket of the universe they’ve built for themselves. - 9.4/10 (Best Songs - Error, The Spell of Mathematics, Radiant City)