KEY POINTS:
Herald rating: * * * *
For the unconverted, the Deftones' music comes across as sleepy and laboured rock that needs a good slap around to wake it up. It has a lot to do with singer and guitarist Chino Moreno's unique swooning voice and asthmatic scream. And the music is often dreamy and stoned, with long outbursts of pummelling and oppressive heaviness. They are puzzling to some, but fans love it.
Saturday Night Wrist is more of the same but there's something wide awake and inspirational about it compared to their last, self-titled, album. While there's nothing as striking and special as Digital Bath or (Change) In the House Of Flies, from 2000's White Pony (a pinnacle this band will find hard to beat), Saturday Night Wrist is an album you keep going back to. It's beautiful, but broken up by the bleeps and squelches of Pink Cellphone, noisy tracks like the chaotic thud of Rapture, and the demented discord of Rats!Rats!Rats!, a song that does the rodent population proud. If the Deftones can breed a few more songs like that then we're in trouble.
On the beautiful side, swooning melodics make Hole In the Earth the perfect album opener, and Cherry Waves is a delicious slice of eerie epic rock, and one of the best Deftones tracks to date.
Label: Maverick
Verdict: Californian five-piece give us a wake-up call on fifth album.
