Deftones Private Music - A Review
Like most Gen X kids growing up in the late '90s, I first heard Deftones on MTV, probably on 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield. The first music video I think I saw from them was Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) Their whole skater-boy aesthetics and their strange mix of what at the time people were calling nu-metal with Chino Moreno's sensual vocals was something that really clicked with the music that I was discovering and listening at that time. For example, I rocked out to Metallica, but also loved The Cure, The Smiths, and Morrissey.
What made me become a big Deftones fan however was when I listened to their White Pony album. I remember going the Mall, inside a Sam Goody's, looking at the minimal album cover. Just a grey background with the outline of a white horse (pony?). The girl at the register, who was way more cooler than me, was impressed with my musical taste, telling me how great the album was and assuring me I'd love it. She wasn't wrong.
Deftones is one of the few bands from that era that transcended the whole nu-metal scene happening in the late '90s, with Limp Bizkit being one of the biggest offenders of everything that was wrong with that scene. They have released a few more albums since then and I kept on and off with the band. Ever since I stopped buying CDs and went digital first with the iPod and free music, and eventually Spotify, I didn't keep up with their music. It's only in the last five years or so that I have come back to consume music more intentionally, particularly when we bought a record player and started buying vinyl records.
It's really interesting to see Gen Z discovering and loving this 30-year-old band. Chino Moreno is 52 years old. The kids are all right I guess.
Private Music is classic Deftones. The reverberated and shoegazy guitars are still in there. Moreno still sings with that sensual intensity that defined their sound. The song Infinite Source has a fun riff and it's one of the best dream pop songs I've heard in a while. Milk of the Madonna, which is an amazing title, is one of my favorite tracks. The chorus is a banger. "Holy ghost, I'm on fire".
Overall, it's not a White Pony, but it's the closest they come to capturing that same alchemy. Heavy yet atmospheric, aggressive yet intimate.
Listening to Private Music takes me back to that day at Sam Goody, holding a CD that would shape my teenage years. Deftones have always been more than just another band from the late ’90s—they’ve managed to grow, experiment, and still matter decades later. And now, seeing a whole new generation fall in love with them, it feels like proof that some music really does transcend its era.
