Deftones – Back To School (Mini Maggit)
Pros:
Live Deftones tracks are always welcome
Nice to get an acoustic version of Change (In the house of flies)
Teething is a great song for an unreleased track
Cons:
Nothing really that new
Too short for something priced as an album
Recommended Tracks
Nosebleed [Live]
Feiticeira [Live]
In Depth
This 7 track CD contains a mixed bag of tracks by the band, featuring live, acoustic and unreleased tracks. There is still some confusion in my mind over the release of this in comparison to white Pony, because this also featured a short film preview of White Pony songs (which is very reminiscent of Fear Factory’s ‘Resurrection’), but was released after White Pony.
One idea was that, due to some reason, the original White Pony released, in the UK at least, never contained Back To School (which isn’t something I lose sleep over), and this was re-released as an extended single CD outside of the US, which also showed off other tracks from the album. This would explain why it feels so thrown together and disjointed to make any sort of proper Deftones live album/B-sides formula.
Standout Tracks
Nosebleed [Live]
One of my favourite tracks off Adrenaline, this pounding beast is shown off best in a live environment. Chino is on form for this recording, which is usually hit and miss. His voice still may be sub par live, but he puts enough into it to pull it off well.
Feiticeira [Live]
The great opening track to White Pony also sounds great in its live setting, as the band both pull it off flawlessly. Its another chance for live Deftones as well, without fear of inconsistency.
Overview
This CD shouldn’t appeal to anyone but major Deftones fans. It contains only 1 new song, and the ‘Live in Hawaii’ DVD contains a better chance for their acoustic reworkings. The title track is poor for the Deftones, and the live stuff is overshadowed by the studio version.
The preview video is quite clever though, and while the rest of the album isn’t bad, it’s just nothing new and different.
For people outside the Deftones world, get White Pony over this. For fans, this’ll go well in your collection, as it’s another unreleased song buried in there at least.
Deftones are:
Chino Moreno – Vocals
Chi Cheng – Bass
Stef Carpenter – Guitars
Abe Cunningham – Drums/Percussion
Frank Delgado – Turntables/Keys
