Deftones - Adrenaline
When Deftones released their debut album “Adrenaline” in 1995, the term “Nu Metal” wasn’t coined yet, but this record had all the ingredients that would come to define it. Just a little less rapping. Thankfully. It added raw aggression to the angst and self-loathing popularized by the grunge bands of the early 90’s, but it expressed those emotions in a much different way musically. The guitars were down-tuned, the beats often borrowed from the hip-hop world and Chino Moreno’s vocals ranged from desperate whispers to primal screams. It shows a band on its way to finding their unique sound, raw and unpolished, full of energy and passion. While no subgenre of metal provoked as much ridicule as nu metal and Deftones became one of its torchbearers, they found a way to stand on their own and to gain respect even from many of those who couldn’t stand Fred Durst.
