Review Summary: A powerful and visceral masterpiece
Around The Fur is an album that often gets overlooked. Perhaps this is down to the poor timing: released in 1997, it came at the beginning at the nu-metal hype alongside bands like Korn and Coal Chamber, and thus people tend to avoid it. There can be no denying that Deftones’ first album
Adrenaline was a bloodthirsty record that brimmed with distortion, hard riffs and angst.
Around The Fur has its fair share of these but, unlike its predecessor, it isn’t limited by them. This album leaps over the boundaries of nu-metal, and becomes everything that the genre could have been, but never would.
The instrumentation on this album is absolutely ruthless, but controlled and measured. The opening track "My Own Summer (Shove It)" displays a focused intensity with Abe Cunningham pounding the drums, brooding and powerful guitar work from Stephen Carpenter and the late Chi Cheng adding extra grooves and texture on the bass. There’s a dark and creeping quality throughout the whole album; "Mascara" goes at an ominous and menacing pace, before launching straight into the explosive titular track "Around The Fur". Even in the slower moments on the album, the tracks never feel like they are plodding along and the listener is enveloped by the looming atmosphere created by Deftones.
It’s the singing of frontman Chino Moreno that really steals the show though. The lyrics can seem ambiguous, but this is what separates Deftones from the rest of the nu-metal flock. Rather than simply manufacturing angst and anger, there’s a genuine sorrow in the tracks. “Now I know that you love me, thank god that you love at all” cries Moreno on "Dai the Flu". It’s clear that the songs are very personal to Chino, which is what makes them so much better than other nu-metal bands. This is reflected in the vocals themselves; Moreno switches between mysterious, hushed whispers and raw, volatile screaming seamlessly. No other singer quite understands contrasting quiet and loud dynamics as well as Chino Moreno, who muses softly until the opportune moment to shatter into powerful screams.
Many seem to skip over
Around The Fur in favour of
White Pony. This is a shame because, while
White Pony is absolutely brilliant,
Around The Fur is what really marked the transition of Deftones from an angry young group into the alternative metal band we know and love today. The album goes far beyond nu-metal’s confines, and unfortunately no other band in the genre was ever able to match its subtle quality.
