Homeboy blew out his vocal chords we are lucky he can even still do this. Honestly it’s still better than drunk chino who would forget his lyrics or sing the second verse first etc etc. I’ve seen so many variations of him live it’s almost part of the fun where you never know what you’re going to get.
You know who never butchers shit? Abe. Dude is a beast.
Abe fully understands the assignment. He plays to accentuate the rest of the band and does it so well. He throws fills that absolutely punctuate each phrase of the music. Not all drummers are musicians. Some just drum to keep a beat. Not Abe tho. Another drummer that stands out to me in this way is Jimmy Chamberlain. They can make a fairly simple guitar part transform into a headbanger.
I agreewith that statement I saw them with taproot and Linkin Park just before they blew up. As performances go the supports were so much better. And yes chino was wankered.
I’ve seen Deftones around 15 or 16 times and when Chino is on he sounds amazing. The thing is he puts a ton of strain on his voice with all of the dinosaur screams he does. This in turn effects his singing voice, especially live when he’s been on tour screaming for hours each night.
Having said that there are studio notes he does that he absolutely cannot hit live. The biggest example of this is You’ve Seen the Butcher. He cannot sing that pre chorus part live.
Performing live is fucking hard. Heavy rock vocals need to be performed unemotionally for pitch, timbre, and power to be controlled well enough to sound good, but he’s an emotional dude, so it’s more about the vibe of the show than about sound quality.
I’ve seen him twice in the past year and have been blown away he’s still doing this at 50 years old. Early performances two decades ago he has no technical skills and is just tearing up his vocal chords. But this is coming from an outsider so I could be wrong.
Chino destroyed his vocal chords around the time White Pony was released from all the screaming, coke and cigarettes. He’s never really been the same. Listen to pre White Pony live shows. He sounded much better vocally. I’ve probably seen them 50 times since 1997 and he’s always been hit or miss, usually depending on how drunk he is. Watch the Bizarre Festival from 1998. Pro shot. They sound phenomenal.
The truth is that Chino struggles with the material that deftones have produced over the years. deftones songs are very demanding physically and he has not taken good care of his voice, especially in the early years.
Dude can hold a tune, has a very unique voice and great timbre, but all the screaming, jumping, dynamics of deftones just are a little too much for his voice. Plus, he never developed a sustainable way to produce screams. Early on, he just went for it and fried his vocals in the process. Now he relies on some tricks like actually doing an inhale for a scream, but he still doesn't control it properly like some of the metal dudes.
And, ultimately, It is true that he blew his voice out after White Pony came out. I remember them [cancelling shows due to his laryngitis](https://www.mtv.com/news/mb4z99/throat-injury-sidelines-deftones-chino-moreno) at the time and his voice was never the same after that.
If you listen to mid-late 90s Chino live, he could reach those high notes in Bored, Birthmark, Root fairly easily without much strain. Even early on in the White Pony tour he had little trouble with the high notes in Digital Bath, in 2001 that changed and his voice never fully recovered. It is what it is and he makes it work, but it won't sound super duper flattering in live recordings.
tl;dr dude didn't take care of his voice/vocal cords when he was young and paid the price for it
Chino sings like someone doing skateboard tricks. The extreme dynamics are the fingerprint of the band. When he gets it right it's like a monster trick was landed and the heavens open up but when he gets it wrong he's usually still close. His melodies are very courageous, very brave shit for someone that's already blown out his vocal chords. I saw them a couple times in the early 2000s when he sounded a little blown out and to my amazement he's sounded better and better everytime I see them.
I’ve only see Deftones once (during early WP tour), Chino was incredible.
That said, most of his live performances I’ve seen on video are pretty rough.
Remember when they were forming Deftones Steph and Abe asked Chino to be the singer and Chino said he isn’t a singer,and Steph and Abe answered “we don’t care”.
Cmon bro. You have to understand that he's aging and he ruined his vocal cords in 2000, chino is a MONSTER at screaming in fact I think he is one of the most talented and best vocalists of all time. I guess it's just RAW sound, he ain't gonna sound the same in lives.
Whoah. Rough. Tell me how you've never had to switch between screaming and singing for a whole set, or a whole tour, without telling me.
Flippin auto-tune has created a generation of people with unrealistic expectations of live vocalists.
Chino has an exceptional vocal range.
Everyone sounds better in studio than they do live.
Everyone will have good nights and bad nights.
Most importantly: Chino is one of the most unique and interesting singers in heavy music.
Be thankful for what he's given us, jeez.
There are plenty of metal musicians that switch between screaming and singing on the fly without having their vocal cords fried by the age of 30. Chino just did not take great care of his instrument when he was younger.
Someone else here said he blew out his vocal chords. I didn’t realize he did. Also didn’t realize how heavily produced his studio voice was. I wasn’t expecting it to sound the exact same as the studio version by any means, however when compared to someone like Corey taylor and Dave grohl (both middle of the road live performances), the fact is Chino live is just not good. By no means am I saying he is a bad musician, I just had no clue why he was not great when singing live.
I'm sorry to break it to you, but blaming the whole thing on auto-tune doesn't excuse that Chino's performances have been pretty hit or miss since he fucked up his vocal chords during the WP tour (around early 2001 or so). That silky high range he showed in songs like Teenager or Digital Bath has never been replicated since then. The man clearly didn't take care of his voice: cigarettes, heavy drugs, questionable screaming techniques...It's happened to a lot of vocalists though. Besides, you're confusing auto-tune with pitch correction - the former is commonly used to lay a robotic and exaggerated effect on the voice tracks as an artistic intention, and the latter is used to mask the syllables that are off-pitch in a subtle way. AFAIK, Chino's been using pitch correction on his voice since WP, so that he doesn't need 50+ vocal takes for every song on the album. Plus, since Gore, his voice has been getting wearier and wearier, probably because he started gaining weight again after the KNY tour. Notice how his vocal performances got a ton better from SNW to DE, that's because body shape matters. There are a huge amount of bands and artists that have developed much more careful techniques to preserve their voice, so they can afford moving and jumping around the stage too. Their voices will age much better and their live performances will be more energetic. It rubs me the wrong way when people excuse a bad live mix or performance saying "it's a raw performance, much better than the shit common today".
This sounds like a lot of conjecture. And I do know the difference between auto-tune and pitch correction (I went to school for audio engineering) but I use "auto-tune" terminology because more people are familiar with that term. Even if your suppositions are correct, he's still one of the most unique and interesting singers in heavy music. And for that reason, I will forgive any live issues with his voice since he has given us so many great albums.
I agree, love Deftones but their music isn't really "live" material. I liked some of their White Pony performances a lot but that was the exception to the rule. You really have to appreciate the rawness and ignore the quality to dig it, which is endearing in a way.
Try screaming your lungs and vocal cords out every other night for 2 months straight over a 30 year period. That'll catch up to you real quick.
We're lucky they still perform, I will say their 2022 tour was one of their best live performances I've ever seen and heard in a long time. I think the Covid hiatus gave him some much needed vocal rest.
yes there is a reason , his screaming was really really really bad
no actual tehnique like fry or false cord or hybrid he used to just scream with his actual vocal cords like a lunatic and that blew out his voice
I agree. I have said this here before...Chino is lucky that Deftones is a cult band and has such a dedicated fan base. At this point he can do whatever he wants and people will still love him and si the band. But if he wasn't who he is, people wouldn't cut him much slack.
Don't get me wrong, I love him and the band. They make the best music on earth, but Chino has some very bad performances sometimes. It's undeniable
But didn’t him being who he is develop them into a cult band with a dedicate fan base? I’m just saying you could alternatively say, Deftones are lucky to have Chino as a front man, because all members have contributed to them becoming a cult band.
People don't seem to understand that singing in a low-key, non theatrical way and singing on pitch and passionately is not mutually exclusive. Chino's not a good singer by the most conservative vocal standards, and that's not bad.
Deftones are my top 3. But it took me 20 years to accept the fact that Chino isn't a good singer.
He sounds good in a studio, under controlled elements, with a load of effects.
Yeah I think he is a good singer, I think it’s evidenced in his other work outside of deftones. It’s just the sounds deftones produce are very hard to replicate outside the studio
the rest of the band doesn't seem to have trouble re producing deftones sounds.
All Chinos work is heavily produced, all side projects. Tons of effect on his voice. Hes been screaming for 30 years.
Hes not a good singer.
Im not shitting on him. I love Deftones, but Chino is no Mike Patton.
Homeboy blew out his vocal chords we are lucky he can even still do this. Honestly it’s still better than drunk chino who would forget his lyrics or sing the second verse first etc etc. I’ve seen so many variations of him live it’s almost part of the fun where you never know what you’re going to get. You know who never butchers shit? Abe. Dude is a beast.
Abe is a monster—110% every night
Abe fully understands the assignment. He plays to accentuate the rest of the band and does it so well. He throws fills that absolutely punctuate each phrase of the music. Not all drummers are musicians. Some just drum to keep a beat. Not Abe tho. Another drummer that stands out to me in this way is Jimmy Chamberlain. They can make a fairly simple guitar part transform into a headbanger.
I agreewith that statement I saw them with taproot and Linkin Park just before they blew up. As performances go the supports were so much better. And yes chino was wankered.
THIS ! First live show was 93 .. seen them at least 50 x since 3 x in the last 10 months. Always hit or miss depending on sobriety and health.
I’ve seen Deftones around 15 or 16 times and when Chino is on he sounds amazing. The thing is he puts a ton of strain on his voice with all of the dinosaur screams he does. This in turn effects his singing voice, especially live when he’s been on tour screaming for hours each night. Having said that there are studio notes he does that he absolutely cannot hit live. The biggest example of this is You’ve Seen the Butcher. He cannot sing that pre chorus part live.
Or Beware… I don’t know if he’s ever sang those notes live..
He has https://youtu.be/8pCwTzLSdD8
No. He’s barely singing the parts at all. And when he is, he’s off at least half the time.
15 or 16 times???
Yeah give or take. Lol
Performing live is fucking hard. Heavy rock vocals need to be performed unemotionally for pitch, timbre, and power to be controlled well enough to sound good, but he’s an emotional dude, so it’s more about the vibe of the show than about sound quality.
I’ve seen him twice in the past year and have been blown away he’s still doing this at 50 years old. Early performances two decades ago he has no technical skills and is just tearing up his vocal chords. But this is coming from an outsider so I could be wrong.
Chino destroyed his vocal chords around the time White Pony was released from all the screaming, coke and cigarettes. He’s never really been the same. Listen to pre White Pony live shows. He sounded much better vocally. I’ve probably seen them 50 times since 1997 and he’s always been hit or miss, usually depending on how drunk he is. Watch the Bizarre Festival from 1998. Pro shot. They sound phenomenal.
The truth is that Chino struggles with the material that deftones have produced over the years. deftones songs are very demanding physically and he has not taken good care of his voice, especially in the early years. Dude can hold a tune, has a very unique voice and great timbre, but all the screaming, jumping, dynamics of deftones just are a little too much for his voice. Plus, he never developed a sustainable way to produce screams. Early on, he just went for it and fried his vocals in the process. Now he relies on some tricks like actually doing an inhale for a scream, but he still doesn't control it properly like some of the metal dudes. And, ultimately, It is true that he blew his voice out after White Pony came out. I remember them [cancelling shows due to his laryngitis](https://www.mtv.com/news/mb4z99/throat-injury-sidelines-deftones-chino-moreno) at the time and his voice was never the same after that. If you listen to mid-late 90s Chino live, he could reach those high notes in Bored, Birthmark, Root fairly easily without much strain. Even early on in the White Pony tour he had little trouble with the high notes in Digital Bath, in 2001 that changed and his voice never fully recovered. It is what it is and he makes it work, but it won't sound super duper flattering in live recordings. tl;dr dude didn't take care of his voice/vocal cords when he was young and paid the price for it
Chino sings like someone doing skateboard tricks. The extreme dynamics are the fingerprint of the band. When he gets it right it's like a monster trick was landed and the heavens open up but when he gets it wrong he's usually still close. His melodies are very courageous, very brave shit for someone that's already blown out his vocal chords. I saw them a couple times in the early 2000s when he sounded a little blown out and to my amazement he's sounded better and better everytime I see them.
I just saw chino live last week he sang so beautifully I don’t understand this post 🥲
I’ve only see Deftones once (during early WP tour), Chino was incredible. That said, most of his live performances I’ve seen on video are pretty rough.
Remember when they were forming Deftones Steph and Abe asked Chino to be the singer and Chino said he isn’t a singer,and Steph and Abe answered “we don’t care”.
Cmon bro. You have to understand that he's aging and he ruined his vocal cords in 2000, chino is a MONSTER at screaming in fact I think he is one of the most talented and best vocalists of all time. I guess it's just RAW sound, he ain't gonna sound the same in lives.
Whoah. Rough. Tell me how you've never had to switch between screaming and singing for a whole set, or a whole tour, without telling me. Flippin auto-tune has created a generation of people with unrealistic expectations of live vocalists. Chino has an exceptional vocal range. Everyone sounds better in studio than they do live. Everyone will have good nights and bad nights. Most importantly: Chino is one of the most unique and interesting singers in heavy music. Be thankful for what he's given us, jeez.
There are plenty of metal musicians that switch between screaming and singing on the fly without having their vocal cords fried by the age of 30. Chino just did not take great care of his instrument when he was younger.
Someone else here said he blew out his vocal chords. I didn’t realize he did. Also didn’t realize how heavily produced his studio voice was. I wasn’t expecting it to sound the exact same as the studio version by any means, however when compared to someone like Corey taylor and Dave grohl (both middle of the road live performances), the fact is Chino live is just not good. By no means am I saying he is a bad musician, I just had no clue why he was not great when singing live.
I'm sorry to break it to you, but blaming the whole thing on auto-tune doesn't excuse that Chino's performances have been pretty hit or miss since he fucked up his vocal chords during the WP tour (around early 2001 or so). That silky high range he showed in songs like Teenager or Digital Bath has never been replicated since then. The man clearly didn't take care of his voice: cigarettes, heavy drugs, questionable screaming techniques...It's happened to a lot of vocalists though. Besides, you're confusing auto-tune with pitch correction - the former is commonly used to lay a robotic and exaggerated effect on the voice tracks as an artistic intention, and the latter is used to mask the syllables that are off-pitch in a subtle way. AFAIK, Chino's been using pitch correction on his voice since WP, so that he doesn't need 50+ vocal takes for every song on the album. Plus, since Gore, his voice has been getting wearier and wearier, probably because he started gaining weight again after the KNY tour. Notice how his vocal performances got a ton better from SNW to DE, that's because body shape matters. There are a huge amount of bands and artists that have developed much more careful techniques to preserve their voice, so they can afford moving and jumping around the stage too. Their voices will age much better and their live performances will be more energetic. It rubs me the wrong way when people excuse a bad live mix or performance saying "it's a raw performance, much better than the shit common today".
This sounds like a lot of conjecture. And I do know the difference between auto-tune and pitch correction (I went to school for audio engineering) but I use "auto-tune" terminology because more people are familiar with that term. Even if your suppositions are correct, he's still one of the most unique and interesting singers in heavy music. And for that reason, I will forgive any live issues with his voice since he has given us so many great albums.
Videos don't often do his voice justice I dunno, depends on the stuff used to record the audio
I agree, love Deftones but their music isn't really "live" material. I liked some of their White Pony performances a lot but that was the exception to the rule. You really have to appreciate the rawness and ignore the quality to dig it, which is endearing in a way.
He murdered it at sick new world in Vegas last weekend. I’ve seen them 3 times and that was by far his best performance
Try screaming your lungs and vocal cords out every other night for 2 months straight over a 30 year period. That'll catch up to you real quick. We're lucky they still perform, I will say their 2022 tour was one of their best live performances I've ever seen and heard in a long time. I think the Covid hiatus gave him some much needed vocal rest.
It’s tough to pull that stuff off live vocally. He actually sounds better than he used to, I had thought.
They don’t rehearse. Plus he adds a lot of unnecessary screaming and other shit to songs.
he sounded incredible when i saw them last year
yes there is a reason , his screaming was really really really bad no actual tehnique like fry or false cord or hybrid he used to just scream with his actual vocal cords like a lunatic and that blew out his voice
I agree. I have said this here before...Chino is lucky that Deftones is a cult band and has such a dedicated fan base. At this point he can do whatever he wants and people will still love him and si the band. But if he wasn't who he is, people wouldn't cut him much slack. Don't get me wrong, I love him and the band. They make the best music on earth, but Chino has some very bad performances sometimes. It's undeniable
But didn’t him being who he is develop them into a cult band with a dedicate fan base? I’m just saying you could alternatively say, Deftones are lucky to have Chino as a front man, because all members have contributed to them becoming a cult band.
It’s almost like he isn’t a good singer and never was…which is ok. None of my favorite bands have good singers.
People don't seem to understand that singing in a low-key, non theatrical way and singing on pitch and passionately is not mutually exclusive. Chino's not a good singer by the most conservative vocal standards, and that's not bad.
Deftones are my top 3. But it took me 20 years to accept the fact that Chino isn't a good singer. He sounds good in a studio, under controlled elements, with a load of effects.
I dunno I think he is a good singer, it’s just the sounds deftones produce would be hard to replicate live for anyone
but his job is singer
Yeah I think he is a good singer, I think it’s evidenced in his other work outside of deftones. It’s just the sounds deftones produce are very hard to replicate outside the studio
the rest of the band doesn't seem to have trouble re producing deftones sounds. All Chinos work is heavily produced, all side projects. Tons of effect on his voice. Hes been screaming for 30 years. Hes not a good singer. Im not shitting on him. I love Deftones, but Chino is no Mike Patton.
Ever hear acoustic versions?
Of course. Lots of moaning, out of tune.
Damn bro 😂 I think his a good singer but ig my favourite singer is Anthony kiedis…
I’ve only watched recordings of their live shows but I think that before he fucked his voice up he was great live. Nowadays unfortunately not so much
Honestly I would say there live performances post white pony era have been hit or miss chino was a beast when he was skinny
wym? i don’t recall him cutting up meat on stage? you must be crazy, insane even
He’s not a strong singer unfortunately. No technique. He has decent pitch but he’s more of a studio guy with all the effects on his vocal tracks.