After almost twenty years of waiting, “Eros”, the legendary “lost album” by Deftones, has suddenly resurfaced online. On June 22, on a forum dedicated to Chino Moreno's band, eleven songs appeared attributed to the sessions of the unfinished album, recorded between 2007 and 2008. The diffusion of the material immediately sparked debate among fans: there are those who consider these recordings a precious testimony to the history of the group and those who, however, believe that listening to them means violating the will of the band.
“Eros” was supposed to represent Deftones' sixth studio album. Officially announced in January 2008, the project took shape a few months later with producer Terry Date, already working on the first four albums of the Californian band. However, recordings stopped abruptly in November of the same year, when bassist Chi Cheng was seriously injured in a car accident in Santa Clara, California, putting him into a coma. After that tragedy, in July 2009 the group decided to shelve the album indefinitely and to focus on new material together with bassist Sergio Vega: from that path “Diamond Eyes” would be born, released in 2010.
In 2014, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Cheng's death on April 13, 2013, Chino Moreno uploaded “Smile” to YouTube, one of the songs from the “Eros” sessions. The song, however, was removed shortly thereafter by the band's label Maverick.
According to what has emerged in the last few hours, in addition to the eleven songs attributed to “Eros”, some demos made during the making of “Ohms”, the album released in 2020, have also been circulating online.
Over the years, Chino Moreno has repeatedly explained why he believes an official publication of “Eros” is unlikely. Interviewed by the Guardian in 2025, the singer said: “They always ask us about 'Eros'. Most likely it will never see the light of day. It would mean going back to that period and bringing unfinished things back to life, and somehow finishing them. 'Dallas' is the only song that was close to being finished.” Already in 2016, speaking to the Independent, he had also expressed reservations about the artistic value of the material: “Musically it was 75-80% complete, and lyrically it was about halfway, but honestly I wasn't too happy with the material we had. Some of the music was a little lacking. I had faith that in the end everything would fall into place and become great, but we never got to that point.”
The leaked songs carry the working titles “Destiny,” “Brenda,” “Melanie,” “Smile,” “Margot,” “Candy,” “Sable,” “Electra,” “Tempest,” “Diamond” and “Briana.” At the moment Deftones have not released any official comment on the leak. The last album released by the band remains “Private Music”, released in 2025.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
