Deftones “Rocket Skates” Video

With the exception of the terrible developments surrounding the health of bassist Chi Cheng the past couple of years, I don’t feel as though it’s too much of a stretch to compare the direction of the Deftones‘ career to that of a band like AC/DC. Not in the sense that the two groups have much in common aside from a vocalist, guitarist, bassist and drummer, but that they haven’t veered too distinctly from the blueprint laid out with their first couple of albums. That, and both groups have stayed on course for a tremendous amount of time—sure AC/DC has been doing it for about a decade and a half longer, but in nü-metal years, the Deftones have been around since the dawn of time.

The band’s new single “Rocket Skates,” from the forthcoming album Diamond Eyes, does little to switch things up in terms of the band’s historical sound. The guitar is razor-sharp, vocalist Chino Moreno’s voice sounds fresh as a daisy, and the band even looks unusually similar to how they did in the ’90s (again, save for bassist Sergio Vega who continues to fill in for Cheng). Simply put: if you were a fan before, you have zero reason not to be a fan now.