Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter doesn't seem too thrilled with the band's new album.
In a new interview with UltimateGuitar.com, Deftones guitarist and co-founder Stephen Carpenter makes it clear that he's not entirely happy with the current direction of the band or their new album, Gore. When asked what songs or guitar parts from the new record he's proud of, Carpenter had this to say:
"Oh god. I think my proudest thing about my guitar playing on this record is just playing on the record because I didn't want to play on the record to begin with. It wasn't until way later once I actually got into it. I look at all the songs on the record and they were all a challenge for me to get in to."
Asked to elaborate, Carpenter implied that the album doesn't feature enough metal:
"I don't know. I just really like metal and I love all the metal that's being played now. I wish everybody would stop saying 'djent' though. That's just dumb. It's just metal... I thoroughly can get djent, I even have great appreciation for the bands, and I mean Meshuggah is one of my favorite bands. But it's just not a genre. It's just metal."
Carpenter explained that the material written before his involvement wasn't exactly what he was hoping for:
"When we were coming up with ideas and writing the songs, the stuff that was being written, you know, the other guys' ideas, I wasn't too interested in it. It wasn't the style or the sound I was hoping we would take. It wasn't what I was expecting or wanting... My band is going one direction and I am going another one currently."
When asked if the creative tension meant that he'd leave the Deftones, Carpenter offered this:
"I would never leave the band that I started but the band started leaving me, I can't control that."