- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Checkout.comA complex, heavily textured album that aims for the stars.
-
White Pony works on many different levels, with its treatises on alienation, art-rock explorations and soundtracks for people who don't take drugs but want to transcend the mundane. [Record of the Week pick]
-
That such a progressive, risk-taking LP wasn't celebrated across the board for its gutsy reinventing of a band thought pigeonholed wasn't that surprising, though – this is a difficult album.
-
Far and away Deftones' most daring and impassioned work to date.
-
Massive in pretension, slightly too long and gothic, but when all the pieces fit, you can't deny its unstoppable power.
-
But for all the growth, the band's continuing inclination toward a bludgeoning sonic attack and Moreno's violent, impressionistic lyrics make this a tough pill to swallow for most listeners.
-
When you can make out their lyrics... you realize that these guys are really the artier, more nuanced and textured cousins of Korn.
-
The Deftones went soft, but in an impressive way, to twist around its signature punk thrash sound.
-
It's surprising how well the songs on White Pony absorb the band's disparate influences (Slayer, the Cure, Bad Brains) without compromising any of its destructive effect.
-
A dense and textured rock affair that builds a bridge between grunge, goth, and industrial stylings.
-
At their worst, Deftones can sound almost like a parody of themselves. But at their best, the band fashions a heavy, claustrophobic atmosphere in which Moreno spins his dark, personal tales of misery and heartbreak against a backdrop of music that careens from the ugly to the beautiful. Most of the time, White Pony finds Deftones at their best.
-
With White Pony, the Deftones have crafted the kind of top-notch album that Tool and Korn have been wanting to make for years.
-
White Pony ends up being more accessible than the group's two previous albums, because it's not a half-formed mess but a classic alternative-rock album, as gentle and catchy as it is dark.
-
Their most adventurous and assured album to date?
-
SelectMaybe when they abandon their arrested development and stop convincing themselves the world is aligned specifically for their personal displeasure, they'll arrive at something listenable. [July 2000, p.112]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 180 out of 195
-
Mixed: 0 out of 195
-
Negative: 15 out of 195
-
JanisK.Jan 13, 2008Pure genius.
-
Nov 6, 2010
-
Apr 7, 2014