Diamond Eyes by Deftones

Diamond Eyes, Deftones' sixth studio album, came out on Reprise on May 4, 2010, and it was born out of heartbreak. The Sacramento band had been deep into a record called Eros when bassist Chi Cheng was badly hurt in a car accident in November 2008; he died in 2013. In June 2009 they set Eros aside, brought in Quicksand's Sergio Vega on bass and started over with producer Nick Raskulinecz, working with him for the first time.

What came out is anything but mournful. Chino Moreno's voice floats and shreds over Stephen Carpenter's seismic riffs, Abe Cunningham's drums and Frank Delgado's textures, heavy and dreamy at once, and the title track and "You've Seen the Butcher" hit like a band grabbing hold of life. It reached the top ten of the Billboard 200, their best showing there since the self-titled record in 2003, and critics loved it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.