Music: What Comes After Nu

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THE NU METAL movement that flashed into being and just as quickly burned out in the late 1990s is easy to characterize. Its practitioners — inevitably in baggy jeans and backward hats — played simplistic (by metal standards), groove-heavy riffs on detuned guitars while the bands' vocalists rapped, whispered or, in the case of Disturbed, let out simian grunts.

As a result, the songs sounded violent, menacing and fresh for, like, 10 seconds. But once they ended up powering action movies, nu metal sounded like old news.

But there were a few mavericks within the movement. Like Los Angeles-based agitators System of a Down, the Deftones were unfairly lumped in with rap-metal rockers — mostly because of their timing. The Deftones do meet a few nu metal criteria — they appeared on the soundtrack for the Matrix (a nu metal must!) and they can accurately cite Rage Against the Machine as an influence. But the label does not provide an accurate description of the band's original and diverse sound.

"I'm very happy with 'Saturday Night Wrist,'" explains Deftones keyboardist and DJ Frank Delgado. "The band is very proud of the album."

It should be: "Saturday Night Wrist" occasionally touches on the classic '90s sound ("Cherry Waves" begins with a riff reminiscent of Korn's "Freak on a Leash," for example), but is mostly a fresh-sounding but inspiration-heavy mishmash of the Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, the Smiths, Depeche Mode and even U2 — listen to Chino Moreno's vocals on the chorus of the album's opener, "Hole in the Earth," for example.

Last summer, fans got a chance to catch the Deftones on friendly nu metal rivals Korn's Family Values Tour; tonight, fans will have an opportunity to catch the Deftones headlining the 9:30 Club.

"Family Values was fun because you can just go out and play your show and not have to worry about much the rest of the day," admits Delgado. "But it's definitely great to be back on the road doing our own tour again."

» 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW; with Fall of Troy, Mon., 7:30 p.m., sold out; 703-218-6500. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Greg Re
Photo courtesy WBR