Deftones

Deftones Diamond Eyes (Warner)

For a couple of songs on the Deftones' sixth album, it seems like business as usual for the California quintet - construction site-cacophony guitars and shredded vocals. But the songs that follow make this album the group's best effort since 2000's Grammy-winning White Pony.

Many of the songs have the rich, ambient, keyboard-enhanced sound of British 80s acts such as The Cure. Concluding track This Place is Death has a melody lifted straight from the Cocteau Twins circa 1983.

But if the lyrics are largely a series of dark phrases - Chino Moreno screams 'Guns, razors, knives!' at one point - the combination of three-dimensional mosh-pit stompers and metallic virtual ballads is all enveloping, rewarding repeat listens.