After five years since "Ohms" and with all the old tracks blowing up again on TikTok ("Sextape", "Cherry Waves", you name it), "Private Music" lands like the band saying: yeah, we're still here, and we still sound exactly like us - just sharper, more confident, more effortless.
Chino Moreno is in incredible form. His voice shifts from fragile whispers to those signature piercing howls that still give you chills. Nick Raskulinecz (the guy behind "Diamond Eyes" and "Koi No Yokan") nailed the production: crystal clear but never sterile, warm and gritty at the same time. Stephen Carpenter's eight-string guitars are huge - dissonant walls one second, lush haze the next. Abe Cunningham's drumming is ferocious and inventive, sometimes almost jazzy in the off-kilter moments. Frank Delgado's synths add this eerie, haunting layer that makes everything feel bigger and weirder. Fred Sablan on bass locks it all in with massive grooves.
The opener “My Mind is a Mountain” hits hard right away: pummeling stoner-ish riff, Chino singing about storms and fate - it’s cathartic as hell. “Locked Club” has this hypnotic Sabbath-adjacent pulse with preacher-like vocals - one of the standouts. “Milk of the Madonna” is coiled and catchy; the chorus sticks instantly. “Cut Hands” brings back that swaggering nu-metal groove without sounding dated. On the softer side, “Souvenir” and “I Think About You All the Time” are winding, beautiful, almost post-rock in the way they build and explode in the outro. The closer “Departing the Body” goes from whisper to full-on eruption - eerie, cyclical, classic Deftones beauty/brutality balance.
The first half flies by with that perfect push-pull energy they’ve always had. But honestly, on repeat listens some tracks start to blur together a little. Not because they’re weak, but because the whole thing flows so smoothly it can feel almost too cohesive. It’s not as raw and aggressive as "Adrenaline" or "Around the Fur", and not as wild/experimental as "Saturday Night Wrist". Compared to "Ohms" (which I still think is underrated), this one is less cyberpunk-future and more classic hazy-dreamy with knucklehead riffs. It’s safe in the best way - like they know exactly what they’re doing and don’t need to prove anything anymore.
Still, this feels like their most mature record yet. No filler, 42 minutes that play like one long journey. Live it’s going to destroy, and the Gen-Z resurgence is well deserved - it pulls in new people while giving longtime fans exactly what they want. It’s not quite topping "White Pony" or "Diamond Eyes" for me personally, but it’s easily one of their strongest in a long time and proof that after nearly four decades they’re still one of the most singular bands out there.