This is one of the few albums in my opinion that managed to actually fulfil the most made promise in metal music:
"This album is gonna be even heavier and even more melodic!!"
Usually we're treated to an over produced, over indulgent commercial type record after hearing this promise.
However with this release deftones showed no signs of holding back on the quality front. This album is indeed at times more melodic and melancholy than the first, and at times heavier. Indeed it does have a better production, but as (in my opinion) the first was "underproduced", this cannot be said to be a bad thing.
This album really does have some classic songs, open with "My Own Summer", a simple song which has become rather famous where i live for being played by EVERY SINGLE local band at least once. As a matter of fact, if you're just starting out on guitar, this is actually a cool album to play along to, with some really great riffs that are nevertheless fairly easy and fun to play.
After My own summer, the album continues to present us with great, catchy songs. In this album Chino's voice has evolved a bit from the first and he is experimenting with it in different ways, (apparent in the hugely distorted whispering in "rickets" and "lhabia").
The sound on this album is a lot more mature than the first, with a much deeper fatter guitar sound replacing the tinny scratching sounds we heard on "adrenaline". This is definitely a good thing, as the guitar sound was one of my main quibbles with the first album.
The heavy songs on this album are great, really energetic and pumping (the closer "headup" even features max cavalera of brazilian heavy metal band "sepultura", and later "soulfly") - and songs like "my own summer", "lotion" and "headup" are classics, but i think where the album succeeds most is in the melodic sections.
The two entirely melodic songs "mascara" and "be quiet and drive" are among the best songs that deftones have ever written, and are an indicator of the brilliance which was to come on the next album. Most of the other songs also contain beautiful melodic sections, Chino's voice soaring over the thick textures and soundscapes created by the other musicians. The title track "around the fur" is also excellent, and the lyrics and thematic content of this album are also as always fantastic. The name "Around the fur" concerns the way that things aren't what they seem: while fur looks sleek and shiny from the front, if you travel around it and look behind there is blood and flesh. This perhaps is as good an expression of the contrasting nature of deftones' melodic/heavy sound, which is integrated seamlessly in this album.
This really is a great album, and makes a perfect companion to "adrenaline" and "white pony". I feel with every item of deftones' discography that you acquire, it somehow lets you appreciate the other more.
Whether this is in fact superior to the first album, i do not know, i prefer to see these two albums as one item, as i feel they nicely compliment and contrast each other. While neither is a timeless classic, they are both great albums, especially together, and very worthy of a good listen and purchase.
I'm therefore not giving around the fur 5 out of 5, rather 4, but bear in mind that this is a high four, and it really is a classic album.
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Advantages: Beauitful masterpiece of lovely curved songs drifting into each other brilliantly. Disadvantages: A bit of a "sick" feeling, and lyrics people will struggle to understand.
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Jun 13th, 2001
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