The Deftones’ ‘lost’ album Eros have reportedly leaked online, and fans are conflicted as to whether or not they should be listening to it.
Eleven songs allegedly recorded for the album appeared on a message board today, June 22, along with demos recorded for the Sacramento band’s ninth studio album Ohms.
Deftones began work on what was intended to be their sixth studio album in the spring of 2007, and announced its working title, Eros, in January 2008. That April, the quintet began recording with producer Terry Date, who produced their first four albums, but those studio sessions halted in the first week of November ’08, after bassist Chi Cheng and his sister was involved in a car crash in Santa Clara, California, which left Cheng in a coma.
In July 2009, the band announced that were indefinitely shelving Eros and were focussing their attention on writing a new record with new bassist Sergio Vega, which ended up being 2010’s Diamond Eyes.
In 2014, to mark the one year anniversary of Chi Cheng’s passing on April 13, 2013, frontman Chino Moreno uploaded one song from the sessions, Smile, to YouTube, but it was swiftly removed by the group’s record label, Maverick.
Speaking with The Guardian last year, Moreno suggested that the group wre unlikely to ever revisit the scrapped recordings.
“We’re always asked about Eros,” he said. “It will most likely never see the light of day. That would involve going back to that period and resurrecting unfinished things, and somehow bringing them to completion. Dallas is the only song that was anywhere near finished.”
In a 2016 interview with The Independent newspaper, Moreno admitted that he wasn’t overly enthused about the lost recordings.
“Musically it’s probably 75-80% done and lyrically it was about halfway there, but honestly, I wasn’t too happy with the material we had,” he stated. “Some of the music was lacking a little bit. I had faith it was going to come together and be great in the end, but we never got to that point.”
Songs leaked today, according to The PRP, feature the working titles Destiny, Brenda, Melanie, Smile, Margot, Candy, Sable, Electra, Trempest, Diamond and Briana.
The fact that the leaked recordings are not complete, finished songs is causing some ethical debates among Deftones fans, with a range of opinions being expressed as to whether or not it might be ‘appropriate’ to seek out and listen to the files, given the circumstances.
“They chose to bury this record and make Diamond Eyes because they needed to heal and move on from their darkest era,” reads one comment on Reddit. “Forcing this into the light goes completely against what the band wanted.”
Deftones have yet to make any official comment on the leak.
