DEFTONES Koi No Yokan CD (2012)

There's a reason Koi No Yokan didn't sound like anything else in 2012, and it still doesn't. After the grief-soaked weight of Diamond Eyes, Chino Moreno and crew delivered something that felt less like a rock record and more like a fever dream you keep returning to voluntarily. Shoegaze textures bleeding into post-metal heaviness, hooks that appear from nowhere and disappear before you can name them. It's the album that proved the Deftones had long since outgrown whatever genre box people tried to nail them into.

If you're still sleeping on tracks like Leathers and Tempest, hand in your alternative card now. This is the kind of dark, atmospheric, emotionally complex record that sits alongside Radiohead and Portishead as much as it does Tool or A Perfect Circle. Essential for anyone who takes their music seriously and their aesthetics darker.

Full length album on CD, released 2012 via Warner. Country of origin: USA. Genre: alternative, post-metal, art rock.

Fans of: A Perfect Circle, Sevendust, Tool, Mudvayne