Moreno’s vocals are something of an acquired taste, as they are frequently hidden behind numerous shades of vocal distortion, something that I believe adds to the unsettling vibes of the album. Frank Delgado provides the electronics and samplings that add a creepy, atmospheric feeling to the songs that few, if any other bands, of the Nu Metal age achieved.
However, this particular album is when the band began to master the heavy and light or “light and dark” sound that they later mastered like few other bands. The songs aren’t particularly catchy, as Around the Fur shows a band not quite come into its own. All of the songs feature heavily down-tuned guitars and screaming, but thanks to frontman Chino Moreno’s soft croon, the songs never enter the unrestrained, over-angst of bands like Korn. In contrast to other bands of the 1997 “scene” ( Limp Bizkit, Korn), the Deftones actually display a very reserved sound. If you haven’t listened to the band before, the Deftones sound may be a bit perplexing at first. On the album, the band begins in earnest the ambient experimentation that truly manifested itself on the band’s next album, White Pony. In fact, while their debut album Adrenaline had many of Nu Metal’s characteristics, by Around the Fur, the band had almost completely abandoned any signs of such trendiness. However tied to the scene, and Korn in particular, Deftones at first appeared, they were and have always been a band that has defied the genre. Nu Metal was all the rage, with bands like Korn and Rage Against the Machine rising fast, former thrash heroes Slayer and Machine Head dipping their hands into the new trend and loosing fans fast, and Fred Durst just beginning his rise to the throne of Biggest Douche Bag Ever. Now we travel back in time, to 1997, to Around the Fur. After giving the album a listen and hearing the first two tracks released from the new album, I had all the motivation I needed to go out and buy Diamond Eyes, and from there on I was officially a fan of the Deftones. I went into my aunt’s black binder, and sure enough, I found it: a copy of Around the Fur, still in great condition. One day, after reading an article about the Deftones and the great expectations for their upcoming album, it suddenly dawned on me that I had seen a Deftones CD lying around somewhere recently. You can imagine my utter shock when I opened up the black binder and found albums from bands like Type O Negative, Slayer, Pantera, Soulfly, and Megadeth, among others. Here is the story: a while back, my aunt gave me a collection of CDs she acquired in the 90s. The reason I bring all of this up is that without the tremendous amount of buzz surrounding the band of late, I would not have gotten interested in the band, and I would not have noticed that, unbeknownst to me, in my very possession, was the Deftones’ sophomore release, Around the Fur. You may be wondering why I am talking about recent Deftones history when this is a review for Around the Fur, and album released by the band in 1997. Yet they did, and after recruiting former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega to fill in for Chi, the band released the excellent Diamond Eyes in May of 2010. Some wondered if the band could carry on at all. If you are unaware of the recent tragedy that has befallen the 20-plus year old Sacramento band, you probably haven’t been paying much attention longtime bass player Chi Cheng was involved in a terrible car accident in November of 2008, and has been in a coma ever since. However, if there was going to be any band in 2010 that grabbed me by the hair and forced my undivided attention, it had to be the Deftones. This goes doubly for older bands whose prime may have come before we were old enough to appreciate them bands whose names have often entered our consciousness but who have not yet grown a big enough interest for us to spring into action and give them an honest listen, despite any accolades and acclaim we may have heard. We may hear about “this band’s epic return to form” or “that band’s triumphant ascension to the top of the metal world”, but some metal heads, such as myself, require a hefty amount of motivation and prodding to check out bands that we have never heard of. For some of us, it takes a hell of a lot of “buzz” surrounding a band for us to give them a listen.