Eros is the working title
of an unreleased album by American alternative metal band Deftones, with tentative release dates in 2008 and 2009. The band spent time recording the album from April to November 2008 at The Spot in Los Angeles. The November 2008 car accident of bassist Chi Cheng forced the band to initially hold off on releasing the album, however, and they later shelved the album indefinitely in a creative decision to move forward. With Cheng in a coma, Deftones recruited former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega and released Diamond Eyes instead in 2010. In the years that followed, the band has had mixed feelings about finishing and officially releasing Eros at some point down the road. The recording sessions of this album marked the first time in five years, since their self-titled fourth album, that Deftones had worked with Terry Date.
Background and recording
Precursors (2000–2006) Beginning with the writing process and subsequent rigorous touring schedule to promote Deftones' 2000 album White Pony, the relationship among band members started to dissolve. This tension carried over to the recording of the group's fourth studio album, Deftones, in 2003, which was a dark and depressing record. Deftones were not pleased with the album they created and did not tour much in support of it. They soon started work on what would eventually become Saturday Night Wrist, a record that was pieced together with the members emailing each other their own recorded parts and not written as a full band. In the middle of recording Saturday Night Wrist, singer Chino Moreno went on a three-month tour with his side project Team Sleep. Deftones were on the verge of breaking up due to the unstable personal lives of each member both inside and outside of the band. This time period in the band's chronology is referred to by Deftones as "the Dark Days".
Resolutions and beginning to write Eros (2007) Prior to the tour in support of Saturday Night Wrist, a meeting was held with Deftones and their management about the fate of the band. When asked if the members still wanted to continue as a band, "the answer was a unanimous, 'Fuck yeah we do,'" which resulted in a "huge powwow and hug session." This meeting was a major turning point for band morale. Hoping for a rapid turnaround from their previous album, Deftones quickly started writing music for Eros as early as May 2007, only seven months after Saturday Night Wrist was released, and continued writing throughout the remainder of the year. During their tour with The Fall of Troy, Deftones set up a room backstage each night to jam together as a whole band.
In October 2007, Deftones returned to their home in California and revamped their studio, The Spot. According to Carpenter, the studio became more of a clubhouse or "treehouse with a studio in it". The band built a bar in the studio and would go there to drink, play cards and hang out before picking up their instruments each day. Deftones used their pre-production time as therapy to vent about their lives in a positive environment. At this time, several members were going through divorces, custody battles over their children, money issues and other problems. By the end of October, Deftones had written half of an album, and continued to write throughout the rest of 2007 with intentions to self-produce the material in the following year.
Recording and Cheng's accident (2008)
The working title of "Eros" was announced in January 2008. The tentative title stemmed from an inside joke between the band members. Drummer Abe Cunningham stated that while touring Germany, "There'd always be some sort of German porn, and they would always say [in heavy, lust accent], 'Eros.' it was just kind of funny, and it's been a joke for years." Deftones officially entered the studio on April 14, 2008 with producer Terry Date (who they had worked with on their first four studio albums, from 1995's Adrenaline through 2003's Deftones) and engineer Scott Olson. For the first time in the group's history, Deftones created a blog specifically to update fans on the progress of recording. In September 2008, Deftones began playing the new song "Melanie" during live performances. Around this time, Date began mixing some of the songs at his home studio in Seattle, Washington. They had also planned on releasing one video of studio updates online per week leading up to the album's release, but only released five before production was put on hold.