If Diamond Eyes had plugged Deftones back into their power, Koi No Yokan (2012) adds grace to it. Its title, a Japanese expression for the premonition of love to come, says everything about the mood: a weightless record, where brutality turns to caress and melody to vertigo.
« Swerve City » and « Poltergeist » carry the heavy load, but it is the great atmospheric stretches that sweep everything away: « Tempest », « Entombed », « Rosemary » unfurl soundscapes of unprecedented scope, where Delgado’s electronics and the sheets of guitar melt into a single flow. Chino Moreno has never sung better, alternating calm and crack with confounding mastery.
Many see it as the band’s summit after White Pony, and the case holds: rarely have the two faces of Deftones, the beast and the dreamer, cohabited with such obviousness. A record of rare coherence and beauty.
Verdict: 9. The second summit, that of absolute maturity. A record to play for anyone who doubts a metal band can be this beautiful.
