Song: "Hexagram"
Artist: Deftones
Album: "Deftones"
Year: 2003
Place Of Origin: Sacramento, California
Years Active: 1988 - present
WHAT I THINK THE SONG IS ABOUT:
"Hexagram" is a song that appears to be about a suicide bomber. The vocalist speaks of how these extremists are brainwashed at an early age to believe that becoming a martyr is a beautiful thing, even encouraged by their own parents to take their own life and the lives of innocent people who happen to be near them at the wrong time. He speaks of the chaos in the streets and the panic and fear after the bomb goes off. What is it all for? The vocalist feels we should be protecting life not engaging in senseless acts of terrorism. After all, we are all human.
DEFTONES DISCOGRAPHY (Full length albums only):
1995 - Adrenaline (Maverick Records)
1997 - Around The Fur (Maverick Records)
2000 - White Pony (Maverick Records)
2003 - Deftones (Maverick Records)
2005 - B-Sides & Rarities (Maverick Records)
2006 - Saturday Night Wrist (Maverick Records)
2010 - Diamond Eyes (Reprise Records)
2011 - Covers (Reprise Records)
2012 - Koi No Yokan (Reprise Records)
2016 - Gore (Reprise Records)
CURRENT STATUS OF DEFTONES:
The Deftones formed as a band as far back as 1988 when all the guys were in high school. After years of making demos, playing shows locally and working hard to get their name out there, they were finally rewarded and signed to Maverick Records. In 1995, the band released it's debut album, "Adrenaline". This album was basically recorded live in the studio. It definitely set the tone right out of the gate that the Deftones were a band that meant business. This album achieved platinum status by 2008. The follow up album, "Around The Fur", started to see a band that was more comfortable and experimental in the studio. This album peaked at #29 on the Billboard 200 charts, thanks in part to the hit singles "My Own Summer" and "Be Quiet And Drive", and would also achieve platinum status. 2000 saw the band drop it's most successful album, the also certified platinum "White Pony". This album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling over 1.3 million units in the U.S. alone. The band also won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for the song "Elite". Success continued for the Deftones with album number four, "Deftones". Debuting at #2 on the Billboard 200, this album would also spend nine weeks in Billboard's Top 100. Though the 2006 album, "Saturday Night Wrist", would debut at #10 on the Billboard 200, record sales would eventually fall well below the band's previous albums. This could be due to the changing atmosphere in which music was getting out to the masses. More and more people were getting their music through free streams or other avenues over the internet so record sales in general began diminishing at this point for most bands, including the Deftones. Tensions were also creeping to the surface between band members at this time because of personal issues and musical directions. The band was, however, working on an album slated to be called "Eros" but in 2008, bassist Chi Cheng got into a serious car accident which basically left him in a minimally conscious state. The band had to push forward with new bassist, Sergio Vega, due to Cheng's condition. At this point, the band left Maverick and joined the Reprise label. Not a far leap as both Maverick and Reprise are subsidiaries of Warner Bros. 2010 saw the release of "Diamond Eyes", featuring the singles "Rocket Skates" and "Diamond Eyes", the latter doing well on rock radio. In 2012, the band released their seventh full length studio album, "Koi No Yokan". Some four months after the release of that album, Chi Cheng passed away from cardiac arrest. Vocalist Chino Moreno has stated that the never released album "Eros", the last album Cheng played on with the Deftones, will most definitely see the light at some point in the future. On the one year anniversary of Cheng's passing, Deftones released the song "Smile" which was recorded during the "Eros" sessions. The band's most recent release was 2016's "Gore" which featured the singles "Prayers/Triangles" and "Phantom Bride", the latter of which features a guitar solo from Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains. Deftones can be labeled many things. Some call them nu-metal. Some call them post-grunge or post-hardcore. Some even call them art rock or experimental rock. They have often been called "the Radiohead of metal" because of their experimental nature when it comes to their music. I know this, there were a lot of bands that tried carrying the torch from the Seattle grunge bands in the mid to late 90's and most of them failed and were really nothing more than watered down carbon copies of those Seattle bands. The Deftones were not one of those carbon copies. This band could stand on their own and had no problem standing side by side along the likes of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. For some reason, popular rock music started being won over by bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit and I always thought to myself, are these people stupid?!! Are they not listening to the Deftones?!! The Deftones should have been one of those bands that carried that rock torch into the 2000's and steamrolled. Don't get me wrong, they were successful, especially those first four albums, but they never seemed to get the credit I always believed they should have as one of the best rock bands on the planet. That being said, if you dig bands like Taproot, A Perfect Circle, Chevelle, Drowning Pool or Alice In Chains, then you would most likely enjoy the Deftones. Sick band!!
TEN DEFTONES SONGS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT:
1. Digital Bath
2. Minerva
3. 7 Words
4. Tempest
5. Diamond Eyes
6. Change (In The House Of Flies)
7. My Own Summer (Shove It)
8. Prayers/Triagles
9. Hole In The Earth
10. No Ordinary Love (Sade cover)
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