Over the last four years, the Deftones have proudly taken that heavily metallic, raucously rapping, wickedly rocking sound to the far corners of the globe. Seemingly no place on Earth has been safe from the full- frontal musical assault brought forth by vocalist Chino Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, bassist Chi Cheng and drummer Abe Cunningham. During that time, this lethal quartet from Sacramento, CA has hit the road with just about anyone-who's-anyone in the hard rock universe--from Korn to White Zombie to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They've toured North America, where their no-holds-barred show has won rave reviews from from the hardcore rock fraternity. They've hit Japan, where they're already a headline attraction, and they've conquered Europe, where many of the Continent's leading rock rags have hailed the group's most recent disc, Around The Fur, as the Album Of The Year.

The benefits of all trans-continental globe-hopping have been readily apparent for the Deftones. Their recent single, Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) became an MTV "buzz bin" sensation, and their track To Have And To Hold, has emerged as the clear cut fave on the recent Depeche Mode tribute disc. In fact, recently it seems as if the Deftones have become the uncrowned "kings" of the tribute disc/soundtrack brigade, with their work also popping up in such varied ports-of-call as last year's Crow flick, where their song Teething appeared on the movie's soundtrack. They made another soundtrack score when their brain-bashing tune Can't Even Breathe wound up in the 1996 box office bomb Escape From L.A. But all such notoriety and success isn't what continues to motivate this hard-charging unit. For the Deftones rock and roll has never been about arena-filling world tours, big budget movie soundtracks or chart-topping tribute discs. For them it's clearly always been about making the most aggressive, raw and unrelenting brand of music ever heard by the ears of mortal man.

"We like making music that has a ruthless feel to it," Moreno said. "But there's also got to be an element in there that makes it listenable. You can't just go out and make an album or paly a show where you're blasting people away. You've got to give them something they can sink their teeth into."

Since the late '95 release of their first album Adrenaline (which has now sold nearly 250,000 copies), the Deftones have been on a non-stop mission to bring their distinctive brand of razor-edged rock to as wide an audience as possible. Their current year long tour has carried them to nations both near-and-far, but in each and every one of these various tour pit stops the reaction to the group's music has almost invariably been the same--their incredible energy and overwhelming power won over new converts with astonishing consistency. Fans may have walked into the arena primed and ready to worship at the shrine of the show headliner-- be it Pantera, the Red Hot Chili Peppers or whomever--but in virtually every case by the time the curtain came down that night, those same fans walked away with a well-earned respect for the Deftones as well.

"Staying on the road for as long as we do has its advantages and disadvantages," Moreno said. "But we love it. We believe so much in the music we're making, that we're willing to make sure that it reaches as many people as possible."

The band's aggressive formula for success has obviously begun paying some hefty dividends. A year after its release, Around The Fur is fast approaching the gold sales level, with no end in sight. But now the Deftones realize that they're going to have to bring a temporary halt to their seemingly never-ending road show in order to begin work on their next album. Moreno promises it will be only a "temporary" delay in this special group's on-going quest for world conquest.

"We want to put everything we learned on the road to work on the next album," Moreno said. "We have a better idea of what works best for us, what gets the people off. This time our intention is to just take everything over-the-top. It's gonna be an experience neither any of us or any of the are ever gonna forget."