YMMV / Deftones

• Awesome Music: All of White Pony and Koi no Yokan certainly qualify.
  • Specific Songs: "Change (In the House of Flies)", "Elite", "Passenger", "
  • Beides the two albums mentioned, there's also "My Own Summer (Shove It)", "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)", "Sextape" and "Cherry Waves".
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Pink Cellphone": "Greasy, filthy handjobs..."
• Broken Base: Gore was legendarily polarizing on release and is still a highly divisive album years later. It's either one of their most underrated releases that dared to not be a second repeat of Diamond Eyes, or it's Chino's solo album released under the Deftones name with absolutely nothing that sticks and one of the worst albums (if not the worst) in their entire catalog.
• Critical Dissonance: Deftones is their biggest financial flop and is also quite divisive among the fanbase (though "Hexagram" and "Minerva" are almost universally loved by the fanbase), but probably their most critically acclaimed album outside of Koi No Yokan.
• Ensemble Dark Horse - The band itself. Deftones are the most well-respected band to be labeled Nu Metal, though they aren't the only band labeled that who are respected.
  • They're also the only other band in the so-called "djent" subgenre to receive tons of respect, the other one being the genre's Trope Maker. It might not be a good idea to mention them around "serious fans" of djent, however.
• Epic Riff - Where do weevenbegin?
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Often pops up with Linkin Park, with the Deftones fandom accusing them of copying Deftones's sound. The two bands, however, have toured and collaborated together many, many times.
  • Also pops up with Korn, largely due to Chino dissing them back in 2003. However, they've toured together in the past and Chino has a long-standing friendship with Jonathan Davis, and they've put that brief feud behind them, even if some fans didn't. That said, there are also many who enjoy both bands.
• Friendly Fandoms: As mentioned above, while some fans of Deftones and Korn have been known to argue with each other in the past, there are a lot of people who enjoy both bands due to their history together.
• Growing the Beard: The band began to come into their own in their sophomore album Around the Fur, which diverged from Adrenaline’s more conventional Nu Metal sound and became the band’s commercial breakthrough. The beard was fully grown with the third album White Pony, their most critically and commercially successful album to date and thr album that codified their sound going forward.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "My Own Summer (Shove It)" includes the lines "hey you, big mood" - just kind of cryptic-sounding at the time, but harder to take seriously about a decade later, when by coincidence the phrase "big mood" became a Tumblr meme.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Deftones got me like"^note The titles of numerous YouTube videos in which fans pair Deftones songs with scenes from movies or television showing a character or characters in trancelike states (although, newer videos include characters amidst tearful breakdowns or rage-filled frenzies), especially if they're wearing headphones or already in the process of listening to music, in which case the Deftones song replaces the In-Universe music (i.e. Patrick Bateman on his Walkman, Mordecai lying on the floor next to a radio, etc.)
  • "Deftones is just horny Korn"
• Nightmare Fuel: Nearly all of White Pony, but especially the final three songs "Passenger", "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Pink Maggit".
  • "Riviere" and "Beware" are also pretty chilling
  • Rodleen Getsic's One-Woman Wail in "Knife Prty". She sounds genuinely terrified.
  • Chino's horrific and maddening scream at the end of "Royal." ^note TAKE ME... UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP
  • His screaming throughout "Hexagram" is similarly spine-tingling.
  • "GOD HELP ME! GOD HELP ME! GOD HELP ME! GOD! GOD HELP ME! GOD HELP ME! GOD HELP ME! GOD!"
  • "Lucky You" doesn't have particularly nightmarish lyrics, but it stands out in how sinister it sounds- the hollow beat, the slow, dark tune, and Chino's wistful voice add up to make what sounds like the theme tune to a slow, deliberate murder.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap - Fans argue that Deftones is not really Nu Metal; either they were never a part of the genre to begin with, or they've moved away from the genre entirely.
• Squick - Annie Hardy's monologue at the end of "Pink Cellphone", which is extremely NSFW and full of Nausea Fuel. Notably, the "clean" version of Saturday Night Wrist just cuts this section off entirely, having the song end about a minute earlier (which most fans will say is a major improvement).
• Signature Song - Either "Change (In the House of Flies)" or "My Own Summer (Shove It)" with some competition from "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" and "Diamond Eyes".
• Tear Jerker - Deftones are famous and beloved for their brooding atmospheric music, so it's no surprise that many of their songs can bring a tear to an eye:
  • "Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event", one of Deftones' most peaceful and somber songs to date, which is apparently about the death of someone close to the band.
  • Cheng's accident. He ultimately passed away on April 13, 2013.
  • "Deathblow" and "Teenager".
  • "Xerces", which many fans interpret as a Grief Song thanks to its powerful, heart-wrenching chorus.
  • "976-EVIL".
  • "Entombed". Christ, "Entombed". It becomes even more sad when you consider that the song's subject (Chi) died less than a year after the parent album was released.
  • "(L)MIRL" is an extremely dark and depressing song. A person's lover died, and is awaiting death so they can be together again. The cause of death could have been suicide. Crosses over with Nightmare Fuel.
  • "Headup", despite the song's heavy, bouncy Groove Metal instrumentation, is a dirge about the death of Max Calavera's stepson.
• Win Back the Crowd: Gore, as noted above, is a notoriously divisive album and turned off a lot of fans on release, but most, if not all of the fans who were driven away by it welcomed Ohms with open arms.