Deftones Earns GRAMMY Nomination as ‘Private Music’ Tops Rock Charts in 2025

Deftones snagged a GRAMMY nod for best rock album. Their tenth studio release, Private Music, climbed to the top of rock charts worldwide and cracked the Top 5 on the Billboard 200. This marks their fourth nomination since forming, though they won once in 2001 for Best Metal Performance with "Elite."

The release arrived three decades after the band started in Northern California. Private Music became the first album recorded with a sober Chino Moreno. It also introduced bassist Fred Sablan as a full member. Producer Nick Raskulinecz returned for his third collaboration with the group.

The band's comeback is recent, and nu-metal's renewed popularity helped spark new interest. Early 2000s tracks like "Cherry Waves," "Hole in the Earth," and "Change (In the House of Flies)" became social media sensations.

Moreno told The Guardian that smart choices kept the band from getting pigeonholed. "We've always made a constant decision to not date ourselves with the music we make... we just wanted to have our own identity. So we would make certain creative decisions to try not to fall too deep into any category," said Moreno.

The singer's passion for Depeche Mode, the Cure, Sade, Cocteau Twins, the Smiths, and even Duran Duran and Culture Club shaped an alt-metal sound that distinguished them from contemporaries when their 1995 debut, Adrenaline, dropped. That album was the first metal release on Madonna's Maverick label.

The band hosted the sixth iteration of their one-day Día de los Deftones festival this past November. "I equate it to making a mixtape, but with live groups, bringing different genres together," said Moreno to Revolver. This year's lineup featured Clipse, 2hollis, Rico Nasty, Deafheaven, Régulo Caro, Ecca Vandal, Glare, and University.