Deftones have had one hell of a last six months. Just this past June was the 20th anniversary of their mega-hit album White Pony, with special YouTube and Twitch streams by different members, September 25th was the release of their long awaited ninth album, Ohms and now the release of their double album commemorative special White Pony / Black Stallion.
Deftones fans can all agree that their third album release in 2000 of White Pony is one of their best albums and dare I say, one of the best albums in alternative rock history. White Pony is Deftones highest-selling album to date and is their first platinum record as of 2002. White Pony dons a 2001 Grammy Award-winning track for Best Metal Performance, Elite, an outstanding promotional single, Digital Bath and two very successful singles, Change (In the House of Flies) and Back to school (Mini Maggit) that you can hear on TV shows and movies to this day. The White Pony logo is also one of the most popular Deftones tattoos.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of such a monumental success, on Friday December 11, 2020 Deftones released a double album consisting of the original White Pony and a remix of White Pony from different artist on each track titled Black Stallion.
Front-man Chino Moreno had this to say about Black Stallion’s contributing artists,“So we have a bunch of different people on it, some that actually inspired some of the writing of the record itself, the original album… So, it’s kind of come full circle.”
Each track has its own flare and electronic feel. Some songs don’t deviate too far from the original where others have an entirely different sound in the most surprising way. It is easy to appreciate just how much work went into each track from these contributing artists knowing how much scrutiny it would go through because Deftones fans are no joke. The minds behind each remixed note and choosing what to add or take away must have been daunting. I am TOTALLY loving this whole album because it’s amazing from original beginning to remixed end.
Black Stallion Tracklist: 01. Feiticeira (Clams Casino remix) 02. Digital Bath (DJ Shadow remix) 03. Elite (Blanck Mass remix) 04. Rx Queen (Salva remix) 05. Street Carp (Phantogram remix) 06. Teenager (Robert Smith remix) 07. Knife Prty (Purity Ring remix) 08. Korea (Trevor Jackson remix) 09. Passenger (Mike Shinoda remix) 10. Change (In the House of Flies) (Tourist remix) 11. Pink Maggit (Squarepusher remix)
So far, the album is met with mixed reviews from other sources but one thing is for certain, to celebrate 20+ years of brilliance by sharing the creativity of other minds remixing their hard work is pure genius.
