A song a day: Deftones - Royal

There's all those nerds on Youtube who make fake videos for songs using scenes from movies (or vice versa). Whenever I listen to Royal, I always think I should make a video made of scenes from Inglorious Basterds*. Images from that film flick across my brain when I hear this song and I think the Chino's blood curdling scream (3:01) is when the Bear is moving in with the baseball bat. Yeah, I'm a nerd like that. Of all the bands that emerged from the 90's metal scene, I always think that Deftones have been the most interesting because they are willfully weird and interesting and even their worst music has some value. I've always been impressed by their sonic density and songs like Minerva and Change (In The House Of Flies) are strangely elegant yet brutally heavy at the same time (when the guitars kick in on Change, it's like a shotgun going off). Aside from that Chino is an incredible singer who has somehow embraced the abject chaos of Patton but able to forge his own identity. Diamond Eyes was an obscenely great record and Royal is a perfect example of the best it has to offer. The song is all brood, menace, capture and no release until that final primal scream at the end. This is not a song for the weak of heart.

*The one other song that is Inglorious Basterds ready is Spinning in the Daffodils by Them Crooked Vultures. Not only for its lyrics, "Sharpen your teeth my darlings, sharpen your knives/Take a finger, if the hand feeds you shit, take one scalp at a time" but also because Josh Homme sings like David Bowie. It is weirdly awesome.

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