Thirty-eight years after forming in sunny Sacramento California, Deftones have been an immense tour de force in the annals of music with their Nu-metal, post-metal, alternative rock and noisy shoegaze mash up of sounds and have gained themselves a legion of devoted hardcore fans that has taken them from the backstreets to the mainstream, and the stars and beyond.
With the release of their tenth studio album Private Music in 2025, Deftones have proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that year by year they just get better and better and manage to pullout the stops when it comes to bringing out fresh new songs and sounds that will endure down the years.
Here at Eyesore Merch, we’d like to cerebrate this one-of-a-kind unique group of musicians with a trip through the back catalogue with our pick of six of their most iconic and notable tracks.
Be sure to check out our website for all your Deftones merch and audio products, and check the band out on their current world tour.
- My Own Summer [Shove It]
The first single to be taken from their sophomore 1997 album, Around the Fur, this track brings us straight into the heart of the furious modern metal sounds that this band honed and later dominated to a tee. No Nu-metal posturing here, just straight up loud as you like music notched up a level that those in their slipstream could only dream of achieving.
- Be Quiet and Drive [Far Away]
Call us cheats, but yes, we are saying another song and another single off the second album is up there in the top six. BQAD takes the sledgehammer sounds of the previous single and draws out its breath with some serious heft with its up and down rhythms adding some old school sounding melody from bands of yesteryear that are drawn from Deftones many wide and varied influences to make a sound of epic proportions.
- Back To School
An anthem if there ever was one, for pissed off angry kids or just anyone going through the daily rituals grinding away every day, BTS was, and is, one of them songs that is instantly infectious and relatable, and nothing more proves this than this is the point where the band went from the small stage to the big time, swapping out small clubs to arenas on the live circuit. This was where Deftones cemented themselves on both the alternative scene and the mainstream, appealing to all. I mean as the lyrics of the song infer: “We are the leaders of it all.” Need I say more?
- Minerva
What can be said about this track that hasn’t been said before, not much other than it is absolute bliss and one of the bands finest and defining moments, if not their magnum opus. From their fourth self-titled album, the song that exhorts God to bless you all is the shift from noisy Nu-metal merchants to ethereal noise pioneers that have solidified this bands ever ongoing presence in the mainstream without ever losing any of their underground heavy AF credibility. If any song made by this band is to be truly thankful for, then it is this by a long stretch.
- Sextape
One-hundred percent proof that here is a band who’s blurred lines between loud heavy noise and euphoric post-metal melodies is often not too far apart to create something akin to transcendence. As the chorus says: “The sounds of the waves collide.”
- Infinite Source
After fives years since their last release, Ohms, Deftones returned in fine style with a track of such monumental brilliance that it solidifies them as the genre busting masters of the mountain who have in a long and winding, varied and sometimes turbulent career have proven time and again that when it comes to pulling out the stops and delivering the gold, then this band and the legacy that they have created and the legions of loyal fans they have amassed goes to show that they and they alone fully deserve the crown they have earned.
With that I think we can all agree that Deftones definitely know a thing or two [actually a lot more] about crafting and finessing the perfect song in all it’s sonic delight, and as they rapidly approach their ruby anniversary there’s no knowing where they will go next. Ten albums, three EPs, a multitude of singles and cover versions proves that the Deftones horse rides on unabated and that with every new release that we’re treated to, it just goes to show that they really are the cream of the crop and let’s just hope for now, that they never stop.