Deftones - Around The Fur (1997)

Are they metal? Are they alternative rock? Are they "nu metal?" Are they really that good, or are they a guilty pleasure? Depending on how old you are, when you got into them and whether you listen to only their first two or three records or their last three, the answers are all different. Personally, my love of the Deftones stopped after White Pony, but Adrenaline and Around The Fur still get regular rotation over a decade later. Twisted thought, isn't it? They formed in 1988 and I remember finding out about them through The Crow: City Of Angels soundtrack, which featured my favorite song by them, "Teething," which hasn't appeared on any full-length albums by the band. Their first two records were definitely angrier, heavier, sloppy and raw sounding, which is exactly what I and many others wanted! If you used to spend hours in your room or older friend's car banging your head to "My Own Summer" and "Headup" while getting Slurpee stains in your JNCOs and your product-coated bangs in your mouth, or your shotgun-blast haircut caught in the car door, come back and enjoy this, it has aged well, I promise. Moving on from this tangent, this album is cleaned up compared to Adrenaline, and features more melodic areas while also getting heavier where it needs to. Chino's vocals are crisper and instead of gurgling, spitting or panting awkwardly like he did in a few places on their debut, he utilizes his mutters, whispers, screams and wails in a much stronger fashion. The drums are louder and not so Piccolo snare 'pop-pop' sounding, and have a fuller crunch that it needed for the fuller guitar sound that came too. Terry Date produced both albums, and the obvious similarities are all there, but there is enough of a difference to hear a little maturity and effort overall. "Headup" features Max Cavalera of Sepultura, or better known these days for (ugh) Soulfly or The Cavalera Conspiracy, and is where the basis for Soulfly came from. So thank the song for the audio atrocities that followed in 1998.

Artist: Deftones
Album: Around The Fur
Year: 1997
Genre: Rock, alternative rock, metal
Quality: 320kbps

1. My Own Summer (Shove It) - 3:35
2. Lhabia - 4:11
3. Mascara - 3:45
4. Around The Fur - 3:31
5. Rickets - 2:42
6. Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) - 5:08
7. Lotion - 3:57
8. Dai The Flu - 4:36
9. Headup feat. Max Cavalera - 5:12
10. MX - 37:18

169 MB

"Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)"



"Mascara"



"Lotion"



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Mad Marge & The Stonecutters - Mad Marge & The Stonecutters (2005)

Mad Marge & The Stonecutters are a high-energy rock 'n' roll band that uses lots of rockabilly or psychobilly influences, and can get quite metallic at times too. The strong female vocals are easy to find yourself singing along to and some of the songs have little familiar catches and hooks in the basslines you might recognize from classic rock tunes, maybe even some surf-y ones. This is not up a lot of people's alleys, but it's a relatively short album with fast pacing and if you like anything you can dance fast to, here you go. For fans of Germany's Mad Sin, HorrorPops, The Creepshow, Koffin Kats and Nekromantix.

Artist: Mad Marge & The Stonecutters
Album: Mad Marge & The Stonecutters
Year: 2005
Genre: Psychobilly, punk, rock
Quality: 192kbps (high)

1. Monsters - 3:23
2. Shake - 3:42
3. Watching You- 2:48
4. Shallow Grave - 3:16
5. Troublemaker - 3:26
6. Strangers - 3:17
7. Gravest Sin - 3:11
8. Man Without A Face - 2:23
9. Ode To The Devil - 4:42
10. Katie's Ghost - 5:07

48.5 MB

"Shake"



"Shallow Grave"



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Deftones - Adrenaline (1995)

The album cover always kept me guessing as to what it was until I got the internet at some point in the late 90's and finally looked it up; a baby aspirator. Rather anticlimactic but the music this album presented has not stopped playing in over 10 years. I remember taking the DC metro in 1997 to see them play with Glassjaw at the Capital Ballroom (now known as Nation) to support their "Around The Fur" album. This album is still considered nu-metal by many, alternative rock, alternative metal-- whatever that means. It's got a sweet sweep-up of rock, metal, melody, aggression, screamed and sung vocals. The piccolo snare used by Abe Cunningham wasn't something I was used to hearing and bugged me for a long while but became a standout feature of the band. The ballads at the end of the record were some of the first I actually liked, and are still to me very beautifully written songs. This sound is lost forever as I lost interest in this band after "White Pony," and no other band could duplicate them (and many, many, many have tried because of how simple most of the Deftones' songs were). Most people might say "Around The Fur" is hands-down their best effort, but I have an attachment to this album above the three I like. I got this as a Christmas present from my aunt Joan during 6th grade, around when she also bought me the live Nirvana album, "From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah." I still have and listen to the Deftones CD.

Artist: Deftones
Album: Adrenaline
Year: 1995
Genre: Rock, metal
Quality: 320kbps (very high)

1. Bored - 4:05
2. Minus Blindfold - 4:04
3. One Weak - 4:28
4. Nosebleed - 4:25
5. Lifter - 4:42
6. Root - 3:40
7. 7 Words - 3:43
8. Birthmark - 4:18
9. Engine No. 9 - 3:25
10. Fireal - 6:34
11. Fist - 3:35

107 MB

"Root"



"Bored"



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