Albums: White Pony, Deftones, Around the Fur

Deftones is an American rock band from Sacramento, California formed in 1989, consisting of Chino Moreno (lead vocals and guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Chi Cheng (bass), Frank Delgado (keyboards/turntables) and Abe Cunningham (drums/percussion). The name "Deftones" was created by Carpenter, who wanted "something that would just stand out but you know, not be all cheese-ball at the same time"; he combined the hip hop slang term "def," which was used by artists such as LL Cool J and Public Enemy, with the suffix "-tones," a popular suffix among 1950s bands (i.e. Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, The Quin-Tones, The Monotones, The Cleftones and The Harptones). Carpenter said the name is intentionally vague to reflect the band's tendency to not focus on just one style of music.

Though initially rooted in heavy metal, Deftones have always claimed diverse influences, with their musical style diversifying over their career. Their sound has been described as alternative metal, art rock, dream pop, experimental rock, nu metal, post-grunge, post-hardcore, progressive rock, drone rock, shoegaze metal or post-metal, psychedelic rock, and rap metal. Their B Sides & Rarities compilation includes cover songs from favorite artists, ranging from metal, hard rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and post-hardcore (Helmet and Jawbox), to gothic rock, art rock and new wave (Duran Duran, Cocteau Twins and The Cure), to mainstream R&B (Sade) and hip hop (a collaboration with Cypress Hill's B-Real).

On November 4, 2008, Cheng was seriously injured in a car accident in Santa Clara, California, and in late January 2009, the band released a statement: "our fallen comrade has not yet made significant progress," and friend of the band Sergio Vega (formerly of Quicksand) would take over as bassist in his absence. Deftones fan Gina Blackmore launched www.oneloveforchi.com in early 2009, as a platform for updates on Cheng's condition and as an auction site for items donated by friends of the band (including rare and autographed pieces from Sevendust, Alice in Chains, Nikki Sixx, Chris Cornell and others), with all proceeds donated to Cheng's family, to ensure he receive the best possible medical care. In August 2009, Brian "Head" Welch, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu (both of KoRn) and members of Sevendust, Slipknot and other rock bands released an instrumental song entitled "A Song for Chi", with proceeds also going towards him and his family.

At the time of Cheng's accident, Deftones had been working on their sixth studio album, Eros, which they later decided to delay indefinitely for artistic reasons. Their most recent studio album, Diamond Eyes, was released in the spring of 2010. They have released six studio albums to date, with two Platinum ("Adrenaline" and "White Pony") and two Gold certifications ("Around the Fur" and "Deftones"), as well as two compilation albums ("B-Sides & Rarities" and "Covers").

Deftones members have worked on several side projects, such as Carpenter's group Sol Invicto, which features Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill and Richie Londres of C.L.P. Carpenter has also worked with a group called Kush, featuring members of Fear Factory and Cypress Hill. Other side projects include Moreno's Team Sleep and Cunningam's Phallucy. Deftones's Frank Delgado is a member of a DJ group with DJ Crook of Team Sleep, DJ Julez, and Matt D called Decibel Devils.

Chino has made a number of guest appearances on numerous younger groups' songs, such as "Bender" by Sevendust, "Paralytic" by Dead Poetic, "Vengeance Is Mine" by Droid, "Caviar" by Dance Gavin Dance, "Surrender Your Sons" by Norma Jean, and "Reprogrammed to Hate" by Whitechapel. In 2000, Cheng released a CD composed of his own spoken word poetry, called The Bamboo Parachute. Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter are featured on the song "If I Could" by Tech N9ne, which will be on Tech's upcoming album All 6's And 7's.

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