In a recent Q&A with The Guardian, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno has dampened fan hopes of ever hearing the band’s long-shelved 2008 album, Eros. The project, which was shelved after bassist Chi Cheng suffered a tragic car accident, has taken on a near-mythical status among fans who are eager to hear the final recordings with the late musician.
The Eros sessions were put on hold indefinitely when Cheng was left with a traumatic brain injury in November 2008, an injury that eventually claimed his life in 2013. The band ultimately decided to move on, starting fresh with their 2010 album, Diamond Eyes.
When asked by a fan if the album would ever see the light of day, Moreno was direct in his response. “It will most likely never see the light of day,” he said. He explained that completing the album would require the band to revisit a painful and difficult period in their history. “That would involve going back to that period and resurrecting unfinished things, and somehow bringing them to completion,” he added. Moreno also clarified that out of all the songs, “Dallas” was the only one that was anywhere near finished.
Moreno’s comments suggest that the band’s creative philosophy is to always be present and to capture the moment. He noted that even the material they wrote during the pandemic was scrapped for their latest album, private music, because they wanted to focus on what they were feeling at the time. “This new album started with ideas we’d been working on alone, through the pandemic,” he said. “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.”
He concluded by saying that it “doesn’t really make sense” to go back and try to complete the unfinished songs from Eros, given the band’s focus on moving forward.
