Chino Moreno’s distinctive vocal performance truly elevates the stature of each song: his delivery dripping over the liquid latex grooves of “Graphic Nature”, his calypso phrasing contrasting with the bloody “Gauze”, and his pitched shrieks and glorious croon echoing around the mountainous riffs of “Goon Squad”.
Deftones have built their legacy upon this constant creation of musical/vocal friction, and the kinetic energy that comes from combining grace and aggression has been masterfully harnessed on Koi No Yokan and expelled throughout.
The majority of songs are elaborately layered and contain interesting intros/outros that make Koi No Yokan play out as a continuous piece of music rather than a collection of songs that have no relationship with each other. Koi No Yokan also sees Deftones employ the production skills of Nick Raskulinecz for the second time in a row, and their interactive relationship is beginning to resemble the band’s highly successful past partnership with Terry Date. And Raskulinecz has done enough to make this album sound expansive, especially during more elaborate compositions: “Tempest”, “Rosemary” and “Entombed”.
At times during their existence, Deftones have been their own worst enemy, but the rich vein of form revived on 2010's Diamond Eyes continues with Koi No Yokan and does not show any signs of exhausting itself. When it comes to metal, positivity is not an energy that normally fuels artistic endeavours, with band’s preferring to rely on negativity to fuel their creative fires. But this fit and lean version of Deftones have turned negativity into vibrant positivity and channelled it into their cohesive and textured seventh full-length, Koi No Yokan – a record that will forever sit high upon Deftones’ burgeoning list of impressive achievements.
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