Around the FurE

The Artist

The Deftones emerged from Sacramento, California in the late 1980s, blending heavy guitars, atmospheric textures, and Chino Moreno's chameleonic voice into something that consistently defied easy categorization. While they were grouped with the nu-metal wave of the mid-1990s, they always operated at the genre's fringes — more interested in shoegaze, post-hardcore, and dream pop than in the rap-rock formulas dominating rock radio at the time. The band's core chemistry — Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, bassist Chi Cheng, drummer Abe Cunningham, and later DJ Frank Delgado — gave their sound a rare dynamic range, capable of shifting from crushing heaviness to near-ambient delicacy within a single song. Around the Fur arrived as their second album and the record that sharpened their identity into something genuinely dangerous and distinct.

The Album

Recorded in 1997 at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Around the Fur was produced by Terry Date, who had previously helmed the band's debut Adrenaline and understood how to capture their live ferocity without sanding off the edges. Date's production is dense and physical — guitars sit low and massive in the mix, while Moreno's vocals are layered with a care that points toward the more textured work ahead. The album was released on October 28, 1997, through Maverick Records, arriving at the peak of alternative metal's commercial moment while quietly transcending it. Thematically, the record circles obsession, desire, and violence — emotions rendered with an intimacy that feels more confessional than cathartic.

Listen For

Stephen Carpenter's guitar tone. Carpenter plays a seven-string guitar tuned low, producing a churn that feels less like distortion and more like pressure — pay attention to how it physically shifts the weight of songs like "My Own Summer (Shove It)" and "Headup."

Chino Moreno's vocal dynamic range. Moreno moves between a near-whispered croon and a full-throated scream with unsettling ease — his performance on "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" is a masterclass in holding tension before releasing it.

Structural contrast within songs. The band consistently builds from delicate, spacious verses into overwhelming sonic walls — notice how "Around the Fur" and "Dai the Flu" weaponize silence and space before the bottom drops out entirely.

A lyrical moment worth sitting with. The lyrics to "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" are sparse but devastating — Moreno's repeated plea to be taken somewhere, anywhere, carries a vulnerability that anchors the album's heavier emotional core.

Themes of obsession and dread. Throughout the record — particularly on "Lhabia" and "Damone" — the writing frames desire as something consuming and destabilizing, blurring the line between longing and threat.