Deftones - private music (Album Thread)

[sharinglungs]

I finally had a chance to listen to the album Friday night. 

Before Friday, I had only heard "My Mind Is a Mountain", then tried to avoid most other spoilers.

I think it is really good.  I'm really happy that Deftones is still putting out great music in 2025.  Just like all their other albums, this one has it's own vibe.  It has their distinct sound, but also goes in some directions they haven't explored before.  The song writing is really good.  Abe's Drums and Franks Synths/Samples are what surprised me the most. 

I am not sure where I rank with their other albums.  That is usually something I won't really think about for a few years.
____________________________________________________________
But I do have some critiques...

Disclaimer: I listened to a CD on some good quality speakers.

The mix/master on Private Music sounds a lot different from all their other albums to me.

The best way I can describe it... A lot of the bass sounds like it is just a constant low sine wave 808 coming from a synthesizer, that just keeps changing to the root note of whatever chord is being played.

It just feels like you are getting hit with a brick wall of bass all the way from the beginning to the end.  Which may have been intentional?  But it seems to crowd all the other instruments a lot and fatigues my ears more than any other album they have done.

I really don't want to be negative, but thought I would share.  Maybe someone else has mentioned something similar already.

Another Disclaimer: I am honestly not sure how much of this is caused by the style of bass playing and how much is the mix/mastering choice. 

Another Disclaimer: I'm really not trying to hate on the new bass player Fred. I have seen him play with Deftones live and he is great with that.  I absolutely don't want to jump to any conclusions of what happened with the previous bass player Sergio (because we will never know every detail), and am not trying to take any sides.

Another Disclaimer: I am a bass player, so probably pay too much attention to bass when I listen.

Only thing I can recommend it putting any EQ settings you may have on your stereo to flat or 0.

I think they mixed this album as loud as possible and that flat eq just is where it's supposed to be.

[Moana91]

really like souvenir and motm
quite like infinite source, i think about you and departing the body
don't see myself listening to anything else. just don't like the melodies in the other songs, they're either boring or plain ugly.

i really dislike diamond eyes and every subsequent album got better for me but this one doesn't really outdo ohms, i'd be fine if the boys called it quits after private music but good for them that they still have tons of traction

Why do you dislike Diamond Eyes? Not my favorite either, just curious...

[Penicks]

huge difference in sound and feeling compared to their previous work, it's very straightforward and leans very closely to dad rock imo. also don't like the guitar which sounds like a motor boat. expectations were probably too high as this was my first album release as a fan. also king kong get some

[Moana91]

huge difference in sound and feeling compared to their previous work, it's very straightforward and leans very closely to dad rock imo. also don't like the guitar which sounds like a motor boat. expectations were probably too high as this was my first album release as a fan. also king kong get some

Loool "dad rock"... like Nickelback or Creed? 🤣

[phil for real]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

[Moana91]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

[RikshawHoward]

We must be listening to different albums.

[phil for real]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

[Moana91]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

I see you've been here since 2008 and recognize your name from multiple posts, so I know you're not trolling.

To start, why would be Nick the one responsible for that supposed lack of emotion?

If anything, I blame Steph for a lot of what Deftones's been doing wrong in my eyes since Diamond Eyes.

[phil for real]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

I see you've been here since 2008 and recognize your name from multiple posts, so I know you're not trolling.

To start, why would be Nick the one responsible for that supposed lack of emotion?

If anything, I blame Steph for a lot of what Deftones's been doing wrong in my eyes since Diamond Eyes.

The nick albums to me take away key elements of the Deftones sound.  The darkness, haunting, mystique is stripped away with his production and they even said he helps them put songs together.  This has made me like diamond eyes less.

I always loved DE, never was too fond of Koi.  Terry Date is the only producer Deftones should work with.  He gets it and understands how they should sound as evidenced by Ohms which is the only album post chi that has the chi era vibes.

[Moana91]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

I see you've been here since 2008 and recognize your name from multiple posts, so I know you're not trolling.

To start, why would be Nick the one responsible for that supposed lack of emotion?

If anything, I blame Steph for a lot of what Deftones's been doing wrong in my eyes since Diamond Eyes.

The nick albums to me take away key elements of the Deftones sound.  The darkness, haunting, mystique is stripped away with his production and they even said he helps them put songs together.  This has made me like diamond eyes less.

I always loved DE, never was too fond of Koi.  Terry Date is the only producer Deftones should work with.  He gets it and understands how they should sound as evidenced by Ohms which is the only album post chi that has the chi era vibes.

Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan and Private Music are definitely the "brighter", more romantic even, uplifting albums of their catalog. I would even say there's something slightly more "pop" to them.

[phil for real]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

I see you've been here since 2008 and recognize your name from multiple posts, so I know you're not trolling.

To start, why would be Nick the one responsible for that supposed lack of emotion?

If anything, I blame Steph for a lot of what Deftones's been doing wrong in my eyes since Diamond Eyes.

The nick albums to me take away key elements of the Deftones sound.  The darkness, haunting, mystique is stripped away with his production and they even said he helps them put songs together.  This has made me like diamond eyes less.

I always loved DE, never was too fond of Koi.  Terry Date is the only producer Deftones should work with.  He gets it and understands how they should sound as evidenced by Ohms which is the only album post chi that has the chi era vibes.

Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan and Private Music are definitely the "brighter", more romantic even, uplifting albums of their catalog. I would even say there's something slightly more "pop" to them.

Yeah and this album made me notice that even more.  People claim koi is their most atmospheric album, and I don't get this at all.  The Terry albums are far more atmospheric.

[Moana91]

Yeah this album is manufactured and sad.  Zero emotion involved.  Clearly a cash in album.  Nick takes away all the best elements of Deftones. 

Jesus Christ... care to further elaborate? Zero emotion involved?!

Yeah it sounds insincere.  It's as if they took elements of what they thought people would eat up and mapped it out to give us this slop.  Never thought Deftones would write a cash in album.  Sad.   

I see you've been here since 2008 and recognize your name from multiple posts, so I know you're not trolling.

To start, why would be Nick the one responsible for that supposed lack of emotion?

If anything, I blame Steph for a lot of what Deftones's been doing wrong in my eyes since Diamond Eyes.

The nick albums to me take away key elements of the Deftones sound.  The darkness, haunting, mystique is stripped away with his production and they even said he helps them put songs together.  This has made me like diamond eyes less.

I always loved DE, never was too fond of Koi.  Terry Date is the only producer Deftones should work with.  He gets it and understands how they should sound as evidenced by Ohms which is the only album post chi that has the chi era vibes.

Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan and Private Music are definitely the "brighter", more romantic even, uplifting albums of their catalog. I would even say there's something slightly more "pop" to them.

Yeah and this album made me notice that even more.  People claim koi is their most atmospheric album, and I don't get this at all.  The Terry albums are far more atmospheric.

This post talks in a way about this topic:

https://www.reddit.com/r/deftones/s/el2I0V4gKH

But in a favorable way to that dreamy side of Deftones, which I also tend to like more than the darkness as I grow older.

[RikshawHoward]

Terry should at the very least engineer everything they do.

[phil for real]

Terry should at the very least engineer everything they do.

Yeah the more time goes on, the more I realize how vital he is to their sound.  Ohms is easily the best album of the post chi era and that's not coincidence.

[RikshawHoward]

Terry should at the very least engineer everything they do.

Yeah the more time goes on, the more I realize how vital he is to their sound.  Ohms is easily the best album of the post chi era and that's not coincidence.

You know what, the more I think about it the more I understand what you mean overall. There is an atmosphere to songs like Lovers that they sort of just lost starting with DE. Something about how Chino approaches the vocals maybe, or perhaps Chi had a lot more influence than we realize. But the SOUND on the albums post SNW is definitely different, with the exception of Ohms like you said. The Spell of Mathematics is the closest they've come I think to capturing that older haunting feeling.

[phil for real]

Terry should at the very least engineer everything they do.

Yeah the more time goes on, the more I realize how vital he is to their sound.  Ohms is easily the best album of the post chi era and that's not coincidence.

You know what, the more I think about it the more I understand what you mean overall. There is an atmosphere to songs like Lovers that they sort of just lost starting with DE. Something about how Chino approaches the vocals maybe, or perhaps Chi had a lot more influence than we realize. But the SOUND on the albums post SNW are definitely different, with ohms coming the closest like you said. The Spell of Mathematics is the closest they've come I think to capturing that older haunting feeling.

Yes exactly.  The nick albums sound more like standard rock and are more straightforward.  It explains why those albums got so much mainstream praise.  I didn't realize it as much until this newfound popularity, but now it's glaring. 

It's more easily digestible.  Songs like leathers sound like any metal band trying to sound ethereal.  It sounds watered down to me.  I'm liking DE less and less because of it.

And yes, spell is a masterpiece.  The whole album does a great job capturing that vibe.  The scream on this link is dead are so intense and unhinged.  The screams on the Nick albums don't have that same emotion, unhinged feel.  It feels very watered down and reigned in.

[Moana91]

We sway in the wind... inside a haze.

And you speak your language... what am I to say?

I'll just wait for your limbs to touch me.

[RikshawHoward]

This usually happens when they release a new album, I gain a renewed appreciation for the previous one.

[Moana91]

I loved Ohms the moment it came out. From Error's bridge/ending onwards it's amazing.