Deftones grace the cover of the latest issue of ‘Kerrang!‘. It’s a meaty read for Deftones fans, including pictures of various memorabilia from Abe Cunningham‘s personal archives, the band’s opinions on each of their albums, their dark days and more. It also confirms that their recent music video shoot was for their new track “Prayers/Triangles“.

Furthermore, the interview also sheds a lot of light on the band’s forthcoming album, “Gore” and how it came to be. Some excerpts from the story can be found below:

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On guitarist Stephen Carpenter‘s infamous interview, in which he expressed his initial disinterest in writing “Gore“. Frontman/guitarist Chino Moreno stated of his reaction:

“People are saying ‘are you mad about what Stef said?’ Fuck no! That’s Stephen! He says that shit to me! I understand when he says stuff like that, people are going to react in a certain way, but Stephen didn’t say it to make people react—he was just being Stephen. That’s how shit is.”

When asked if he received any blowback from the band for his comments, Carpenter himself offered:

“Not a single email, text message, phone call. You know what came out my end? Straight crickets. Like nothing happened.” “When I gave ‘the interview’, I was just saying that, in the beginning, I wasn’t too inspired by what was going on. I didn’t elaborate. The emotions tied to that statement were really all around one song called “Hearts/Wires.” Once I got over my bs about it and dug into it, I found a place in it where I like it and have fun. It ended up one I liked the most. It’s so funny how things get spun out.”

When asked if he was happy with “Gore“, Carpenter replied:

“Oh yeah! I went eight records before I had any kind of issue. But I’ve already lived through two records in the past where somebody else didn’t enjoy them at all. For me to finally hit a wall, I think I last pretty good, because I’ve seen other people already buckle.”

On the hard drug usage that existed around 2000-2006, Moreno commented:

“‘White Pony‘, that’s when the drug-use really became a thing in our band. Before that we didn’t really do anything—I didn’t even smoke weed. But we started using cocaine, we lived life like there was no tomorrow, we sold it to ourselves that that’s what you do in a band. In retrospect, I’m not completely upset I did it—it kinda makes you who you are. But fuck man, I had this false reality that I could do whatever I want. And we were successful from that record, so it was this falsehood like, ‘We can just get high and fucking make some shit and people are going to love it.’ You get this false feeling that you can’t fuck up.”

That drug usage led to what Moreno describes as the band’s worst album, 2006’s “Saturday Night Wrist“. He said of a recent listen to it:

“It was fucking horrible. To me it was horrible. You know why I don’t like that record? I didn’t believe in myself. I was put with three or four different writers [the band’s label and management at the time] made me believe I couldn’t wring a song anymore. My real problem was I had a drug problem and I probably just needed help for that. But it got so much bigger, because instead of just getting over that, they made me believe I couldn’t make music any more. And I believed that! That record is so unconfident, that’s why I hate it. I don’t feel like it’s me—it’s this unconfident version of myself that doesn’t know what he’s doing or even believe in himself. It was horrible. It was the worst time in my life.”

Carpenter added:

“We almost chucked Chino out of the band on that record. Seriously, in all honesty, it was less an unfriendly thing, just motherfuckers were in bad places. Drugs are a bad thing. They make you make bad decisions. Relationships don’t get terminated. You don’t do that. But that record and self-titled, we refer to them as our ‘dark days.’ Lives were collapsing, immaturity, divorces, drugs, alcohol. All the clichéd bullshit.”

As to being surpassed in terms of popularity and sales around the release of “White Pony” by their peers in Limp Bizkit, etc., Moreno added:

“Yes we were successful and we were on TRL for one week, while these other groups—I’ll still fucking say it—these cookie-cutter, candy version of what we had done magnified that shit intensely. We had to accept that. We had to swallow that a lot of times, too, and say it is what it is and our longevity is what’s really going to matter one day.”

Moreno also elaborated on the cover art of “Around The Fur“, as part of a look at the artwork for each of the band’s albums:

“That cover is horrible. At the time, we all lived in an apartment complex and were partying every night. We were at the hot tub [one time[ and this was just a random shot [that] somehow we picked as the cover. On the back cover, there’s a picture of the girl from the waist down. In the original, Frank‘s in the hot tub next to her, so we Photoshopped him out of it. We were all married at the time, so how do we explain to our wives we’re in a hot tub with these chicks?”

The above is merely just scratching the surface of the actual article. You can pick up the latest issue of Kerrang! at Kerrang.com. The same publication are also running a list of Moreno‘s top 5 lyricists, which you can check out at this location.