Around the Fur
Deftones
The record that announced a full transformation opens with this track, and the announcement is brutal and unambiguous. The guitars drop in distorted and low, tuned down so far they function almost as percussion, and the drums hit with a controlled ferocity that keeps chaos perpetually leashed. There is a mechanical quality to the groove — locked in, repetitive, almost ritualistic — that makes the song feel like an engine building toward something without ever quite arriving. Chino's vocal performance is among his most varied: he whispers, croons, and then tears open into full-throated screaming with a fluidity that never feels theatrical, only inevitable. The lyrics orbit themes of confrontation and desire, a narrator speaking with strange intimacy to someone who may be adversary or lover or both. Culturally, this track sits at the precise moment when heavy music was becoming interested in tension over release, in the space between styles rather than commitment to any one of them. It sounds like a band discovering what they could do with space and dynamics, with the long pause before impact. You put this on when something in you wants to be pushed against — when comfort feels dishonest and you need the music to have teeth.
medium
1990s
mechanical, dense, coiled
American alternative metal, Sacramento scene transformation
Rock. Alternative Metal. aggressive, tense. Opens with brutal unambiguous force and sustains mechanical ritualistic pressure, the narrator circling confrontation and desire with strange intimacy.. energy 9. medium. danceability 4. valence 4. vocals: dynamic male, whisper to croon to full scream, fluid and inevitable, never theatrical. production: percussion-function down-tuned guitars, controlled ferocious drums, space and dynamics, tension over release. texture: mechanical, dense, coiled. acousticness 1. era: 1990s. American alternative metal, Sacramento scene transformation. When something in you wants to be pushed against — when comfort feels dishonest and you need music with teeth.