Gore

[RaptureWS]

Okay, here's my ultimate decision - Gore is the most solid record Deftones have ever put out.

Hear me out..

I'm not saying it's their "best," or even my "favorite," but I can't remember a Deftones album that had such good songs all the way through.

Even my favorite records have songs I don't really like at all.  Adrenaline had Bored, ATF had Mascara, WP had Teenager, ST had AOAUE, SNW has Pink Cellphone, DE had 976 and TPID, KNY had Tempest, .  All of these records are fantastic, but I just don't dig those particular songs on them.  Then there's even a few more not in the "dislike" pile, but certainly in the "meh" pile like Good Morning Beautiful, Moana, Elite, YSTB, most of DE and KNY actually.

With Gore, though, I really can't find a single song I dislike.  Not even a "meh" song.  If I had to had to had to pick the weakest track I'd say it's probably Gore, but even that still had its merits.

Now, the only caveat is that Gore doesn't seem to have THE ONE.  That ONE song that just drives me wild.  For example, while ST has some throwaways on it, songs like Hexagram and Bloody Cape are just fucking amazing.  Bloody Cape is probably my favorite song ever from any artist ever.  There's really nothing on Gore that's OMG AMAZING.  Royal is fucking amazing, Kimdracula is fucking amazing, WGTB is amazing, Knife Prty is amazing, etc etc.  Gore doesn't have that for me, yet... just sort of really really good songs that just need that last little UMPH.

If there was just that ONE song, that really threw it over the edge for me, it might be my favorite album of theirs.  But it doesn't at the moment.  Acid Hologram is close, but it doesn't quite reach that OMG AMAZING level.

Still in my top 4 though!

U no lik rubies?

[ANattyRat]

I'm going to conflict with pretty much everyone here as usual and say that the main solo on Phantom Bride is probably one of the weakest parts of the album. It's so jarring and doesn't fit well with the core mood of the band's sound.

Other negatives:

Pittura Infamante - It's growing on me and the high quality rip sounds much better, but it is odd in the context of the rest of the album, should probably be a b-side.
Ending part of Gore goes on for too long. There's nothing unexpected or interesting there so there's no reason for it to drag on for as long as it does.
Lacks much in the way of the segues between songs. KNY did this much better.
They need to bring back some of the really electronic/weird stuff like Teenager, Lucky You, Anniversary, Konami Code, Pink Cellphone, etc. Miss these curveballs.
Some of Stef's heavy riffs are uninspiring. His tone on this album cuts through the mix much better this time around, but most of the low end riffage sounds fairly juvenile. This has been a problem with him for some time, but enough is enough. Really hope he puts more effort in on the next one.
Abe and Frank need to elevated in the mix more often. One of the best parts of the album are those few seconds when Frank shows up prominently during Acid Hologram. Likewise with Abe's drumming on Xenon.

Overall it's still a sold B+/A- album but after 4 years of waiting it should have been so much more.

Songs like the ones you mentioned, minus Teenager and Anniversary, feel like fillers to me. Except for Konami Code, but I'm not a fan of them doing an instrumental song, since they're not an instrumental band. They have a solid album full of songs that feel like they deserved a place on the album (in my eyes), so I'm glad they didn't take up the limited space with a song that almost feels like it's there for the sake of being different or beefing up the number of songs. But that's just me.

Definitely agree with what you said about Frank. Hell, Frank's effects during Xenon sound more prominent on the vinyl rip than the better quality one for some reason. Not sure how, but that was disappointing.

Also agree about Stef. He was uninspired to begin with for some reason, so hopefully next time he'll be more interested to make music from the get-go, and not leave it to the others for so long.

[gwenudo]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

If that was crest, i wouldve lost all my shit. Goddamn gotta love steph

[SMLiberator]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

Highly unlikely, I believe. Chino stated that Crest was one of his favorite tracks on the record, and I don't really see that jam being a Chino favorite. He also mentioned recording vocals for it...

[77years]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

That's ungodly.

Sounds like extremely heavy guttural riffs with arpeggiated high shit over top. Very MBV-ish

Was that really Crest? It looks/sounds too organized to be random

[gwenudo]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

That's ungodly.

Sounds like extremely heavy guttural riffs with arpeggiated high shit over top. Very MBV-ish

Was that really Crest? It looks/sounds too organized to be random

Doubt it, Steph and Serg always do a cool interlude before the encore, this is what they played for the interlude, their interlude for koi tour was fucking brilliant as well, extremely atmospheric

[from_musings]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

Highly unlikely, I believe. Chino stated that Crest was one of his favorite tracks on the record, and I don't really see that jam being a Chino favorite. Also, he also mentioned recording vocals for it...

yes the vocals probably come in later, that's just the beginning of it..like they only played the intro of h/w.
pretty sure that's CREST

[gwenudo]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

Highly unlikely, I believe. Chino stated that Crest was one of his favorite tracks on the record, and I don't really see that jam being a Chino favorite. Also, he also mentioned recording vocals for it...

yes the vocals probably come in later, that's just the beginning of it..like they only played the intro of h/w.
pretty sure that's CREST

If that was Crest i think Steph would be praising it, or atleast the intro.

[RaptureWS]

Pittura Infamante - It's growing on me and the high quality rip sounds much better, but it is odd in the context of the rest of the album, should probably be a b-side.
Ending part of Gore goes on for too long. There's nothing unexpected or interesting there so there's no reason for it to drag on for as long as it does.
Lacks much in the way of the segues between songs. KNY did this much better.
They need to bring back some of the really electronic/weird stuff like Teenager, Lucky You, Anniversary, Konami Code, Pink Cellphone, etc. Miss these curveballs.
Some of Stef's heavy riffs are uninspiring. His tone on this album cuts through the mix much better this time around, but most of the low end riffage sounds fairly juvenile. This has been a problem with him for some time, but enough is enough. Really hope he puts more effort in on the next one.
Abe and Frank need to elevated in the mix more often. One of the best parts of the album are those few seconds when Frank shows up prominently during Acid Hologram. Likewise with Abe's drumming on Xenon.

I completely agree with everything you just said but I still think the Pros overcome the Cons by an awful lot. I loved the album.

If there was just one thing I could change to make it even better though, it would certainly be Frank's volume in the mix. It's there, but it's way too low. The same problem we have in some songs in S/T, too.

Pittura is gold. GTFO

I agree about Stef's uninspiring riffs on this record. Stef used to be the master at simple-yet-effective. Lately he has just went with simple. For the most part I really enjoy Stef's work on the album but there are some very lazy riffs. As beautiful as the end of Phantom can be, is that really the best he could come up with to end such an epic song? I also agree about Frank being low at times. I mean, I use $20 headphones but I always have and I feel like I hear Frank less on this album compared to most. Very possible it's the way his volume is mixed? I gotta invest in some good headphones though...

[SMLiberator]

their interlude for koi tour was fucking brilliant as well, extremely atmospheric

videos pls

[ANattyRat]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

If that was crest, i wouldve lost all my shit. Goddamn gotta love steph

Unless they plan on releasing Crest, I don't see why they'd play part of it live just for the hell of it. Probably just unrelated, an intro until they get into the encore.

I do hope we get to hear it, but I doubt it. Be interesting to hear what song they decided wouldn't fit on the album, since it's quite a diverse-sounding album as it is, and hell, they had Teenager pop up in White Pony after Street Carp.

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

Highly unlikely, I believe. Chino stated that Crest was one of his favorite tracks on the record, and I don't really see that jam being a Chino favorite. Also, he also mentioned recording vocals for it...

yes the vocals probably come in later, that's just the beginning of it..like they only played the intro of h/w.
pretty sure that's CREST

Nah, it's just something to play before the encore, there's no reason for them to be playing an intro to a song they're probably never going to let us hear. Like really, by that logic it could be any of the other songs they came up with for Gore but didn't finish or put on the album, you know?

[gwenudo]

their interlude for koi tour was fucking brilliant as well, extremely atmospheric

videos pls

This is when i saw them, cant see me though i was at the very front. http://youtu.be/rq5DpzgVt88

[kameron632]

so this is crest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc-pf3OVB_g

pretty cool way to open an album if you ask me..

Highly unlikely, I believe. Chino stated that Crest was one of his favorite tracks on the record, and I don't really see that jam being a Chino favorite. Also, he also mentioned recording vocals for it...

yes the vocals probably come in later, that's just the beginning of it..like they only played the intro of h/w.
pretty sure that's CREST

If that was Crest i think Steph would be praising it, or atleast the intro.

Steph is wearing a Contortionist shirt..............................holy fuck. check them out.
so happy hes a fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SMLiberator]

well, that sounded pretty creepy.

[from_musings]

Now, the only caveat is that Gore doesn't seem to have THE ONE.  That ONE song that just drives me wild. 

i've only listened to the vinyl rip 3-4 times, waiting for the cd to drop... although some very good stuff on there, i didn't get that jawdropping moment, the hit in the chest, that high and euophoria from a song,when the heart rate increases.. couldn't see a 10/10 song. all of their records except snw had 10/10 songs....pretty sure CREST was the 10/10 song. too bad it got flushed

[Freedomsoldier17]

their interlude for koi tour was fucking brilliant as well, extremely atmospheric

videos pls

This is when i saw them, cant see me though i was at the very front. http://youtu.be/rq5DpzgVt88

that was a freakin trip. make a studio version!

[from_musings]

Nah, it's just something to play before the encore, there's no reason for them to be playing an intro to a song they're probably never going to let us hear. Like really, by that logic it could be any of the other songs they came up with for Gore but didn't finish or put on the album, you know?

if that isn't crest maybe it will be a song in the future. in the same way they played the pink maggit intro live in 1998 - that ended up a song in 2000...

[gwenudo]

Nah, it's just something to play before the encore, there's no reason for them to be playing an intro to a song they're probably never going to let us hear. Like really, by that logic it could be any of the other songs they came up with for Gore but didn't finish or put on the album, you know?

if that isn't crest maybe it will be a song in the future. in the same way they played the pink maggit intro live in 1998 - that ended up a song in 2000...

Why would they do it now right when their album dropped if that was the case?

[ANattyRat]

Nah, it's just something to play before the encore, there's no reason for them to be playing an intro to a song they're probably never going to let us hear. Like really, by that logic it could be any of the other songs they came up with for Gore but didn't finish or put on the album, you know?

if that isn't crest maybe it will be a song in the future. in the same way they played the pink maggit intro live in 1998 - that ended up a song in 2000...

I doubt it, I'm sure they don't think that far ahead, haha. They also don't play demo versions of songs live anymore.

[Inkblades]