Review Summary: "Around the Fur” is an overall excellent enjoyable album. It has all the best parts of Deftones sound, from soft to heavy, from dark and shy to aggressive, from screeches and wails to whispers, and from slow to fast paced riffs and drum beats.
Over the years the Deftones have been one of the more dominant nu-metal bands, and when you listen to each of they’re albums you can understand why. The Deftones’ sound is a very unique one, and backed by not only great music, but great emotions and feelings. One would be anger, many Deftones songs sound very aggressive and fast paced, and they’re debut release “Adrenaline” is no exception. Another would be a very dark and eerie atmospheric feeling, which is added with the aggressive angry feel to make up the Deftones sophomore release known as “Around the Fur”.
“My Own Summer”- Already, right off the bat the first song shows off the dark side of the Deftones, like I had explained earlier. A distorted guitar riff and a soft drum beat bring in Chino whispering the lyrics softly. This intro goes on for a minute or so, then violently Chino lets out a very loud and abrasive scream and the bass, guitar, and drums all play at a quicker, heavier, and more frenzied pace matching Chino’s vocals. The two types of the Deftones’ sound play cat and mouse throughout the song, dramatically changing from soft and eerie to loud, heavy and ear popping in an instant. A great track to start off the album.
“Lhabia”- The heavier sound pours over into the next song “Lhabia”. Right away a hard rock bass line and quick drum beat blare into the headphones of the listener. Yet Chino’s vocals are a little different here. He mumbles and whispers the vocals, and adds a creepier element to the heavy distorted guitars. Chino doesn’t use his scream as much in this song as he did in “My Own Summer” but to signal in the choruses he does let out a loud yell. Towards the middle Chino does use his fast paced screaming vocals, then goes back to his whispering rapping towards the end, all the while with the bellowing crunching bass line backing it, giving it a very heavy background. Finally the song drifts off into distortion and caps off another great song.
“Mascara”- This is where the album changes a bit. With the first two tracks taking a quicker, louder, and heavier approach “Mascara” is a quieter, less aggressive track that doesn’t pick up much throughout. This kind of song is found more in the Deftones self titled and “White Pony”, but not a whole lot in “Adrenaline” or “Around the Fur”. It stays the same mainly throughout, borderline whispers from Chino, cleaner, less heavy guitars, and slow smashes of the cymbals on drums. The last 30 seconds or so just includes the guitar riff played alone, which is a nice ending to a different, yet still great track.
“Around the Fur”- Ah yes the title track of the album, one of the first songs that got me into the Deftones. It takes a complete 180 from the sound of “Mascara” and sounds much like “Lhabia”, yet the guitars are crunchier, more distorted, and heavier. Chino also scream sings to perfection, and makes this track a bit harsher to some listeners vocally, but to others even better for others. During the choruses are the best parts of the song, where Chino screeches alongside the fast paced drums and guitars. “Around the Fur” is definitely a great song, better than the others at this point, and should not be skipped.
“Rickets”- Very similar (as others have said) to the “Adrenaline” type of songs, with an array of hard rock heavy guitar riffs, aggressive in-your-face screaming vocals from Chino that change from screeches to whispers throughout. Then towards the end the song seems to be over, with a very Primus-like quiet distortion ending, but then suddenly turns into one last frenzied assault by Chino and the gang, loud and heavy just as the rest of the song was.
“Be Quiet and Drive”- This is another different type of song for lovers of “Adrenaline”. The song starts off with just guitars and drums, which doesn’t happen much on “Around the Fur”. Chino’s vocals are very clean, and the bass riff is as hard rocking as ever, and makes the choruses very enjoyable. The verses are very atmospheric, with cleaner vocals and guitars which make it a very heavy, yet soothing type of song. Towards the end of the song Chino blends his two vocal styles that consist of soothing moans and frenzied yells all the while being backed with one of the more enjoyable guitar riffs on the album.
This song competes with “Around the Fur” for one of the top tracks on the album.
“Lotion”- Say goodbye to the cleaner vocal style of Chino, the beginning of “Lotion” takes the beautiful feel from “Be Quiet and Drive” and turns it into an ugly, mucky, heavy feel. This is the combination of Chino’s harsh vocal screams and the frenzied ear piercing guitars. The bass is quick and steady and even gets a little solo towards the middle. It keeps the heavier metal feel into the mix, and makes everything else even better. Chino finally goes into an angry rap and says a four letter word a few times, but it goes well with the overall vibe of the song, and fits well. Afterwards the song ends with the same riffs, and very hard pounding drums, added with the same screaming vocals from Chino, and the song ends similar to how it began.
“Dai the Flu”- Clean, lightning quick guitar riffs and a bellowing bass riff followed by a nice drum beat begin the song. Chino then comes in with cleaner vocals than “Lotion’s”, similar to those on “Be Quiet and Drive” with the occasional screams or yells. Then after the half way mark of the song wah pedal-like solo signals in a long scream from Chino and that repeats until the song is finally closed out with a low distortion ending, like most Deftones songs.
“Headup”- It picks off where “Dai the Flu” ended, and has one of the heaviest, catchiest, balls out bass lines on the album, and from the Deftones in general. Vocals in this album might be a turnoff to those who still enjoy Chino’s vocal style. He uses a very fast paced nu-metal rap followed with random fits of yelling in the background. The drums and guitars act as a heavy backbone to the song. The choruses are what saves the song, and include that repeated bass line from the beginning of the song, along with Abe smashing relentlessly on the cymbals. After the middle of the song “Headup” includes a similar technique by the Deftone’s that’s also found in “Rickets”, just a little different. The song is closed out with a very quiet guitar riff ending that gives the listener a bit of a break. Not one of the better songs on the album, but a good one at any rate.
“MX”- “MX” is a quieter song, with lyrics about Chino having feelings for a woman. Well at least that’s how it begins. It starts with a louder heavier sequence of drums and guitars, but then shifts to Chino singing quietly and cleanly. Also Abe’s wife does guest vocals before the choruses. Then the chorus repeats the intro sequence, and the lyrics turn dark and Chino explains how he begins to not like like the woman he said he did in the beginning. He then sings “So I can shove her over a railing”. The quiet to loud sound goes back and forth in “MX” just as it does in many Deftones’ songs. Kind of repetitive, but the hard rocking feel of the song easily keeps the listener interested.
“Damone”- At the 33:04 mark of “MX” the hidden track “Damone” is revealed. A lightning fast drum beat begins the song, along with Chino’s almost struggling screams and moans, followed by clean catchy guitar riffs. Like many songs on “Around the Fur” and similar to the last song “MX” the slower parts of the song play tag with the faster aggressive parts of the song and change repeatedly. Chino’s vocals are mainly the same as they have been throughout the album, and the guitars shift from clean to distorted many times. A loud, long, and harsh screech caps off the last song on “Around the Fur” as heavy and relentless as the album began.
So there you have the sophomore Deftones release “Around the Fur”. Picking up where “Adrenaline” left off, and adding a bit of new creepier sounding music, “Around the Fur” is an overall excellent enjoyable album. It has all the best parts of Deftones sound, from soft to heavy, from dark to aggressive, from screeches and wails to whispers, and from slow to fast paced riffs and drum beats, this album displays it all. Chino again flexes his vocal muscles, boasting a very unique and effective vocal style on each and every track. The guitarist Stephen Carpenter does everything from soothing clean guitar riffs to crunching and heavy fast paced riffs, throughout the album as well. Chi Cheng the bassist constantly adds that heavy metal type of backbone to the Deftones’ sound, making each song way heavy enough for any fans of metal out there. And finally Abe Cunningham the drummer plays everything from quiet strokes of the cymbals to hard pounding relentless beats that help set the aggressive tone to most songs. Do youself a favor and get this album, it’s essential to Deftones fans, an amazing album to metal fans, and an excellent album to any listener.
only thing missing are the ratings
