The Deftones fan world was thrown into a frenzy on Sunday morning (June 22) as material from the band’s long-shelved 2008 album Eros, along with demos from their 2020 record Ohms, reportedly began circulating online. The apparent leaks, which surfaced on a message board and quickly spread across fan communities, represent one of the most talked-about moments in recent Deftones history, given the deeply emotional story attached to Eros.
According to those sharing the files, 11 tracks said to come from the Eros sessions appeared online, including “Smile“, the only song from the project ever made public. The titles all appear to be working titles rather than finished names.
The reported Eros tracklist reads as follows:
- “Destiny”
- “Brenda”
- “Melanie”
- “Smile”
- “Margot”
- “Candy”
- “Sable”
- “Electra”
- “Trempest”
- “Diamond”
- “Briana”
Also said to be making the rounds are demo sessions from Ohms, complete with a previously unheard track titled “Sensations“. Copies of the material have reportedly begun appearing on YouTube and other platforms, though their authenticity has not been confirmed, and some fans have raised the possibility that parts of it could be an AI-assisted hoax. As of this writing, the band themselves have not publicly addressed the leaks.
Eros carries a weight unlike any other chapter in the Deftones catalog. The band began work on what was intended to be their sixth studio album in 2007, announcing the Eros working title in early 2008 and reuniting with producer Terry Date, who had helmed their earliest records. Those sessions came to an abrupt halt in November 2008, after bassist and co-vocalist Chi Cheng was involved in a serious car accident that left him in a coma. Cheng never fully recovered, and the injuries he sustained ultimately claimed his life in 2013.
In the wake of the tragedy, Deftones made the difficult choice to shelve Eros in 2009 and move forward with new bassist Sergio Vega, channeling their grief into 2010’s acclaimed Diamond Eyes. The lone glimpse fans ever got of the lost record came in 2014, when frontman Chino Moreno quietly uploaded “Smile” to YouTube to mark the one-year anniversary of Cheng‘s passing, only for the label to swiftly remove it.
The leak arrives less than a year after Moreno addressed the future of Eros directly, making clear the band had no plans to ever release it. Speaking in 2025, he explained why revisiting the material no longer made sense.
“It will most likely never see the light of day,” he said at the time.
He went on to connect that decision to the band’s then-newest work, emphasizing a desire to stay present rather than dig through the past.
“This new album started with ideas we’d been working on alone, through the pandemic. And when we got together to actually start making the record, none of us wanted to look back at those ideas from the pandemic — we wanted to capture the moment we’re in today.”
Moreno has long described the project as emotionally heavy to revisit, having previously noted that opening the files would mean confronting the last music Cheng ever played on. He has also characterized the record as largely unfinished, which lines up with the idea that the newly circulating audio consists of rough demos rather than polished studio masters.
