You don’t hear Deftones, or a heavier band, in the media very often. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

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Good Afternoon to you – I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and we’ve finally reached the end of the week – where we pay our debts to the dead Scuzz TV channel with a stroll down the cemetery of Emo-Rock and Pop-Punk releases, between the years of the late-1990’s and the mid-2000’s, to see if life is still kicking beneath their graves in the modern day. That’s a lovely thought, isn’t it? Deftones are a surviving name of the era, who some critics have credited as being “The Radiohead Of Metal” for their continued experimentation within the Alternative Metal and Prog-Rock genres. They’ve certainly become associated with “Cool Emo” music, and they have since gone on record to sell over 10 million albums worldwide, after their formation in Sacramento, California in 1998. The Nu-Metal heavyweights are still going on strong, with their latest album being 2020’s “Ohms”, a record which received widespread critical acclaim from the music press. “My Own Summer (Shove It)” was released during, arguably, their height of fame, in 1997. A single from their second LP, “Around The Fur”, this track got to #29 in the UK Singles Chart. Via the Warner Vault, you can watch the original video below.

The first international hit for the now 5-piece group, “My Own Summer (Shove It)”, gained further mainstream exposure for the Sacramento natives through it’s licensed use on the soundtrack of the cinematic masterpiece “The Matrix”. The album was a success too – with positive reviews and sales success. After being certified as Gold by the RIAA in 1999, it eventually went Platinum in 2001. Chino Moreno alters his lead vocals between a minimalist, whispered vocal delivery and an aggressive, loud pitch. Bold lyrics like: “I think God is moving it’s tongue, There’s no crowd in the streets, and no sun” and “Hey you, big star/Tell me when it’s over” hit hard, while the shouted delivery of “Shove it aside” in the post-bridge remove the melodic undercurrents of the anthemic lead guitar riffs and the pounding drums, which add a bleak and somber quality to the more brooding and calculated pace of the two slowly progressing verses. It has got it’s influences rooted firmly within Prog-Metal and Nu-Metal, and if you ask me, the bulky bass guitar chords make for a rather unusual sound for a radio chart hit. Nevertheless, I think that it struck a chord with audiences because it grabbed their attention with it’s unusual production work, and they felt like a fresh addition to the genre that was trundling along without Nirvana or Guns ‘N’ Roses. Overall, I think it’s probably quite difficult to recommend if you are part of the mainstream audience, but it’s interesting for people who typically listen to Metal or are more familiar with the Nu Metal style already. Though I prefer System Of A Down, it’s still characteristically unique, and it cannot be disputed for the success it enjoyed.

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Thank you for checking out my latest blog post! It’s back to the daily drill tomorrow (and another day closer to my looming assessment deadlines) with another track from the archives of 2020. This next one comes from an emerging, energetic UK punk rock group who are originally from Cardiff, and they’ve been signed up to Clwb Creative Records. They are currently set to perform a live set at the FOCUS Wales 2021 live music event, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for that to go ahead. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/