Heavy music can be many things to different people. Imposing. Scary. Cathartic. Energetic. Bestial. Brutal. But sexy? That’s not often the case — that is, of course, unless you’re a Deftones fan.
Since their founding in the Nineties, Deftones have brought a uniquely sensual flavor to heavy music. You could argue that this comes down to the gauzy, smoky-eyed textures Stephen Carpenter brings through his dreamiest riffs, or the primally hypnotic pound Abe Cunningham delivers behind the drum kit. Perhaps most of all, it’s the way vocalist Chino Moreno injects their music with his uniquely orgasmic, moan-heavy approach.
While that eroticism is a common thread across Deftones’ prolific catalog, what is their sexiest song of all time? We asked Revolver readers to rank the horniest Deftones tunes, and these are the salacious results.
“Cherry Waves”
Like many of Deftones’ greatest hits, “Cherry Waves” is a groove-swerved stunner that throbs with an excess of deep, distorted and dreamy guitars tones and a round of passionate moans from Moreno.
Unlike some of the other songs on this list, there’s nothing graphically sexual about Saturday Night Wrist’s fourth track — unless, of course, you want to Freud the fuck out and discuss the subtext of whatever huge plank the in-song couple are hugging whilst riding this wave together.
Nevetheless, many a Deftone fan has been sucked in by the sensual slowcore allure of “Cherry Waves.”
“Passenger”
We may never know the exact nature of what all went on atop the cool leather seats in White Pony standout “Passenger,” but we’d be remiss to not note upfront that the record’s hypnagogic duet between Moreno and TOOL’s Maynard James Keenan begins with hot-and-bothered, ultra-breathy vocal percussion you’d half expect from a turn-of-the-century Neptunes joint.
All the same, we can connect the dots enough to know that it’s getting wildly sweaty in the vehicle in question, condensation quickly slickening the windows and mirrors as someone gets taken “to the edge.” Twenty-five years on from its initial release, “Passenger” remains a pulse-quickening thrillride for the many “lucky witnesses” who’ve kept this track on repeat.
“Digital Bath”
“Tonight, I feel like more.”
The music video for White Pony’s “Digital Bath” compares and contrasts the intimacy a band like Deftones manages to hold with an adoring crowd of thousands with what initially looks like footage from a private, one-on-one bathing video. The pressing of flesh is present in both scenarios — Moreno clasps hands with fans in the crowd, while an infrared-immersive scene presents a woman scrunching her toes in a tub.
Moreno spends his time crooning his way through a series of salaciously suggestive lines (“You make the water warm/You taste foreign”) that’ve probably had a lot of folks getting turned on — never realizing that the song is actually a dark fantasy of electrocution.
“Sextape”
“Tonight, we ride.”
Considering its song title, we pretty much knew “Sextape” was going to rank high in this poll.
Despite its gentle emo drive, the Diamond Eyes cut is a more explicit version of the aquatic sensuality Moreno explored earlier on “Cherry Waves,” the frontman here lubed-up for “hours of pleasure” once the “ocean takes [him] in.”
It comes to a quivering climax with Moreno’s cries of “the sound of the waves collide,” a decidedly flowerier description of an ecstatic, earth-shattering sex scene than how one of our readers distilled the essence of the line on Facebook: “He’s basically saying, ‘Damn that shit wet.’”
“You’ve Seen the Butcher”
While the other songs on this list arguably find Deftones caught up in an ethereal erotic trance, Diamond Eyes’ “You’ve Seen the Butcher” flips the feel entirely. It’s a sex song that finds the band at their most directly down-and-dirty.
Driven by Stephen Carpenter’s detuned and dirging blues-djent riffs, the song slinks about with nocturnal menace. Moreno’s in a debaucherous mood, setting up a video camera to catch every explosive bedroom moment between him and his partner before broadcasting it to the whole world (“After the taping’s through/Who do you think we can show?”)
Voyeuristic. Intimate. Horny as hell. “You’ve Seen the Butcher” is a Deftones sex jam that’s been creeping across our Revolver readers’ excited skulls for decades.