Deftones - 'Deftones' (Maverick) Released 19/05/03

It's been three years since the Deftones' last album, the anthemic and deeply atmospheric White Pony, and they've spent most of that time working on this, their eponymous fourth album. Usually, when a band fails to come up with a proper title by this stage, it's a demonstration of a lack of ideas, or a signal of a new beginning. Here, however, it seems to be merely a rejection of the industry conventions they so despise, given that guitarist Stef Carpenter recently claimed that the band itself would be nameless if they were allowed. And as far as ideas are concerned, Chino Moreno and co are emphatically not running out of steam.

From storming heavy-as-****ing-nowt opener 'Hexagram' to the unexpectedly pretty slowcore of 'Anniversary Of An Uninteresting Event', this is the Deftones' most varied and challenging album so far. Who else could include the Nine Inch Nails-esque 'Lucky You' within a few tracks of screamathon 'When Girls Telephone Boys'? And that's without even mentioning the I-can't-believe-it's-not Foreigner histrionics of swooping classic single 'Minerva'. Although far from easy listening, this is perhaps the most rewarding Deftones experience thus far, and should finally translate their highly poetic, thoroughly violent sound into sales. A frighteningly good blood-soaked ****fest of an album. You don't like it? **** you, mother****er. The Deftones' time is NOW.