Around the Fur

Official Review

Released in 1997 on Maverick Records, Around the Fur marks the exact moment Deftones transcended the boundaries of the rising nu-metal movement to forge their own distinct musical grammar. Stepping away from genre clichés, the Sacramento band’s sophomore album fused the raw violence of hardcore and heavy alternative riffing with a deep, lush shoegaze and dream-pop sensibility, blending claustrophobia and dark sensuality under razor-sharp production. The album's architecture relies on a dynamic interplay between Chi Cheng’s deep basslines, Abe Cunningham’s pummeling drumming, and Stephen Carpenter’s wall-of-sound guitar riffs. Navigating this dense instrumental backdrop is Chino Moreno’s extraordinary vocal performance, shifting fluidly from whispered, feverish falsettos to desperate, high-tension screams. Essential tracks like My Own Summer (Shove It) and Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) leverage this dynamic tension into a visceral physical experience, turning sonic saturation into a core atmospheric element. Lyrically, the album discards simple angst in favor of morbid eroticism, urban alienation, and voyeuristic obsession. Headup (featuring Soulfly’s Max Cavalera) delivers a cathartic eruption of grief and rage, while the sprawling closer MX warps conventional track lengths with long silences and hidden pieces, amplifying a sense of psychological isolation. Within the site’s framework, Around the Fur connects directly to Dossier 8 (J.G. Ballard / Psychopathology of the Built Environment) and Dossier 11 (Industrial/Post-Industrial Scene). The album serves as an intimate diagnostic of somatic pathologies within late-20th-century suburban spaces: the suffocating heat of My Own Summer and the automotive escape of Be Quiet and Drive act as Ballardian vectors where flesh, machinery, and saturated frequencies merge into a unified claustrophobic psychosis. Ultimately, Around the Fur stands as a cornerstone of 1990s alternative rock that has aged with incredible grace. By combining explosive heavy riffs with an eerie, hypnotic beauty, Deftones proved that modern heavy music could evolve into a rich, deeply psychological art form.