DEFTONES: Ohms (NEO/NU METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After a "Gore" crystallizing all the tensions and upheavals that Deftones had experienced in previous years the Americans found a form of stability to embark on their ninth album "Ohms". As often in these cases, we privilege the essential and we bet on the foundation of fundamentals which constitutes us. This explains the involvement of all the members of the group in the writing of "Ohms" and the presence of the producer of the first four albums, the great era, Terry Date.

Deftones doesn't make the listener languish long before getting to the heart of the matter. The few seconds of the suspended introduction to 'Genesis' freeze and prepare the listener's attention for what follows. If certain passages of 'Gore' gave the mind the possibility to escape into more or less deep daydreams "Ohms" is like a trap that leaves no escape, captivating from the first to the last second. The Americans show great health, a freshness in creativity with some riffs of a formidable efficiency ('Urantia', 'Radiant City') which confirms the strong comeback of guitarist Carpenter, invigorating rhythmic variations (the jerk of 'Headless', the groove 'This Link Is Dead') and a passion for details that will occupy the amateurs of musical precision.

If each musician's contribution is essential to the unique sound of the Deftones, it is Moreno's soul that embodies it. And in "Ohms" he is at the peak of his art and his phrasing which stretches like an agony ('Ohms') where his vocal alternations, between bubbling and fragility, vibrate in total harmony with the diversity of the formats of "Ohms". This ninth record of the Californians corrects certain imbalances of "Gore", its excess of gravity, reconciles the atmospheres with diaphanous textures and the energy that innervates the whole record. The group does not prepare its big night but celebrates its osmosis in the ability to make the arrangement of the ten tracks perfectly fluid and to make its titles converge irremediably towards the highest degree of melodic harmony.

"Ohms" produces moments of rather classical quality in the mix of soft despair and overwhelming rage ('Radiant City'), enveloping moods ('Headless') and a contained energy that occasionally escapes ('Genesis', 'Ceremony', 'Ohms'). It is also crossed of a sharp impulse of raw power with two burners ('Urantia' and 'Errorr') which enjoy an ultra effective riff frame and uppercut finales. The heart of "Ohms" takes a luminous and colorful turn ('The Spell of Mathematics') but also epic (the tension of 'This Link Is Dead') with atmospheres that multiply the carnal sensations and release the cinematographic impressions (the marine sounds of 'Pompeji').

Deftones is a maturing artistic entity that brings to the forefront, on the occasion of 'Ohms', a part of its original nature, that which preceded and prepared the more experimental period of recent years. "Ohms" is the healthy consequence of a reflexive experience on oneself to keep the best of it. Deftones signs a great record without weakness, certainly his best for twenty years. - Official website

DEFTONES

OHMS

AUTRE LABEL

NEO/NU METAL