Gabi Brown

Features — Deftones — Amira Elfeky — Bleed — Emotional Xan — Fleshwater — Profiler — Split Chain — Thirty Nights — Wisp Ten years ago Deftones acclaim was the domain of SputnikMusic lists and YouTube comments. Then Loathe blew the doors down with 2020’s I Let it in and It Took Everything and now Deftones are seemingly everywhere, from Coachella to TikTok to ill considered HBO vehicles for The Weeknd's acting career.

Post-grunge was bad. It was a genre predicated entirely on doing what bands like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam had already done but with absolutely no qualms about selling out. Now I know what you’re thinking, I am the CEO of nu-metal, the worst genre of all time, but hear me out. Nu-metal, the spiritual cousin to post-grunge, is not bad, despite claims to the contrary, because it was founded on an idea; finding common ground between metal, industrial, rap, and funk.

The enjoyment of music is simply the satisfaction of recognizing truth. A major scale resolving right on time. A vocal harmony clicking into place alongside the lead. An internal rhyme scheme executed with effortless precision. A lyric so profound it stops you in your tracks. All of these are intangible and incredible truths that color our days. But whose truths are worthy of such merit?