2 keepers
keeper avg .181
Koi No Yokan (meaning "premonition of love") begins with a wallop, the skipping head-banger "Swerve City"**** (the "they travel through the air" song); not "Minerva" but it's still a short burst of awesome that beats "Be Quiet and Drive" in energy and is unfortunately as good as this album gets. Not that the album is lazy or lacking in dynamics, as "Romantic Dreams" ("I wish this night would never end") has more than its share of interesting parts. "Leathers" alternates a pummeling sonic assault with soaring choruses, proving that Deftones have mastered this construction; "Poltergeist" is similarly unrelenting, utilizing a riff so distorted it makes the speakers pulse and seem to phase, though the song is ultimately too complex for its own good. At the other extreme, the relatively delicate "Entombed" creates a thick, relaxing atmosphere, and closing track "What Happened To You" is one of the more spacious and least-metallic songs I remember from this band. Unfortunately none of these songs achieve the excellence I've come to expect from Deftones, a band with uniquely varied influences and surprising subtlety for the metal genre, by providing a gripping hook. The slow-grinding 6-minute-plus "Tempest" and "Rosemary" attempt at drama, but contrary to accolades I've read, fail the hardest; the former culminates with nothing more than a standard-issue nu-metal chorus, while Moreno's melodic interludes still don't justify slogging through the decent but forgettable latter. On the other hand, "Gauze" and "Goon Squad"**** (the war whoop song) don't make the career-best list but get extra points for some incredibly thick guitar stacking. Overall it's a great-sounding album that is sadly not very memorable.
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