Album Review: Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Deftones don't pussyfoot; every opening track of the past six records has been a conscious album definer, a sensually executed choke-hold encapsulating the sonic experimentations to come. The bludgeoning, foreground plainness of Swerve City is therefore an unsettling introduction to the Sacremento quintet's seventh record, revealing the loose 'premonition of love' Japanese translation and expectation of Koi No Yokan to be slightly fraudulent in its opening strains. Perhaps it's a consequence of the notable between-track soundscaping of Frank Delgado that pushed Koi No Yokan's defining moment towards the back this time; nonetheless, the teasing, progressive atmospherics of Tempest are welcome at any point. Against Stephen Carpenter's low-slung, intentionally apathetic wall of guitar, Chino Moreno's exquisite, dark imagery mingles best.

Carpenter's guitar is often a simple melody of a few notes repeated, though the complexity comes on the likes of Romantic Dreams with his breadth of tone, shade and an imitable ability to stitch together many disparate melodies into a cohesive aural journey. Moreno simultaneously accomplishes this feat on vocals, and collectively the ebb and flow dynamic that so endears Deftones to the masses is reinvented once more. Koi No Yokan also showcases their broadest range of percussive sounds to date; the keyboard clap of the abrasive Poltergeist dares an even greater ferocity from Abe Cunningham's sticks, while the rim and kick combo of album closer, What Happened To You?, complements a glorious exchange of ethereal highs between Carpenter and Moreno.

Koi No Yokan is a journey made somewhat challenging by Deftones' ever-evolving insistence on reinvigorating an extraordinarily successful push-pull template, and that's precisely what makes them the most enduring outfit of alternative metal.