Review Summary: This must be what being pecked to death by a flock of flamingos feels like. It's dark, it's scary, but it's also pretty and pink!
“An oasis of horror in (what could have been) a desert of boredom.”
It’s usually pretentious as hell to kick a review off with a doctored quote from a late author’s beloved masterwork, but hell, the record’s only been out a few days, and comparisons to Roberto Bolaño’s monstrous 2666 were unshakeable on my first few spins of this equally monstrous record. So this review is purely knee-jerk, and so the quote remains. What novel 2666 and Gore share is an underlying sense of dread and a threshold of confusion before the thesis of the work is revealed. Often times, it even feels as if both works accomplish more than they ever intended. While Bolaño’s novel became a commentary on legacy as well as a historically-fictitious documentation of 20th century atrocities, Gore pushes the “beautiful with the sick” trope that heavy rock albums have tried to emulate for decades to dizzying new heights. And as with Bolaño’s novel, the sequencing of the individual pieces of the novel not adds to the impact of the most powerful moments, but creates a heavy, inescapable atmosphere that lingers long after the record stops or the final page is turned. There’s no more divide between the beautiful and the sick anymore, and by the end of the record, the gorgeous and grotesque are so eloquently blended that makes Gore an unalloyed, demanding experience.
Prayers/Triangles, with use of grimy distorted bass tones and mirages of delayed guitar, bring to mind Circa Survive’s Blue Sky Noise. However, once the apocalyptically gazey Acid Hexagram comes rumbling through the speakers, it’s clear that Deftones are blazing their own path. This track and the following, Doomed User, show Stef reaching new levels of versatility in serving up heavy guitar parts. Acid Hologram shows Stef drenching listeners in an all-encompassing, cosmic darkness, while Chino delivers his darkest vocal performance to date. Meanwhile, the latter track initially sounding trite, with thrash-riffing/maniacal shouts morphing into a delirious chorus is typical in-your-face Deftones, the track provides an enjoyable, well-needed breath of fresh air. The familiarity is short, as Geometric Headdress’s verses swirl and slither around with a strange majesty that is difficult to latch onto in the first few listens. This perfectly accentuates the straight-forward vulnerability Hearts/Wires pours out in droves, which makes for this track a highlight of the first half of the record.
The following two tracks are head-scratchers, with Pittura Infamante’s sunny opening riff and Xenon’s surprisingly bright but ultimately stale compositions tending to blend together into a saccharine but ultimately faceless midsection. However, the reward for enduring this portion of the record is an unforgettable venture through all the things that have made Deftones legendary: now with a fresh, adventurous approach to song writing. (L)MIRL casts off with a jet-black tranquility featuring sweet, sweet bursts of ethereal vibrancy that only Chino can provide. This track is also a highlight for Sergio’s bass playing, which dangles listeners over vertigo-inducing depths. The song final act erupts with a classic heavy Deftones riff competing against shrieks/shouts, demanding listeners’ attention as the track soothes and strains listeners simultaneously. Career standout Gore follows, with Frank’s electronic flashes setting up for a tight drum line from Abe underneath a bewildering verse melody, before alternating to an intense rupture of screams and giant guitars, and returning to the verses again with newfound tension. A monumental bridge features vocals that shimmer and sway before crashing down into what will surely go down as one of the heaviest moments in Deftones history.
The penultimate and dreamy Phantom Bride serve as a slap in the face to anyone who thought Sextape was the most serene track the Tones would ever craft, while featuring a surely polarizing yet extremely effective guitar solo. No time is wasted between this stunning track and closer Rubicon. The conclusion of the record is aptly gripping, with intense uplifting blasts of daylight coupled with sinister undertones, creating a mesmerizing audio assault before the final crushing riff thunders down on listeners as a final death blow.
The songs on Gore are often graphic, violently contorting in the forefront. But when considering the complete picture, a visceral sense of disorientation undergirds the record, even at its weakest moments (Doomed User, Pittura Infamante, Xenon), and shows each member fully utilizing their strengths. Following the tremendous yet exhaustive one-two punch of Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan, Deftones created their most confusing and powerful work to date. Referring back to the opening Bolaño quote, Deftones have refocused their songwriting and eschewed retreading old territory in an all-but-dead genre. Instead of recreating a predictable, accessible record, they crafted something that feels new, flowing, monstrous, and most importantly, very much alive. And in doing so, the alt-metal emperors have crossed over their own Rubicon, and it’s very, very important.
