At the most basic level, the lyrics to Deftones’ Passenger are about having sex in a car. As the song emerged from a fevered interplay between Chino Moreno and Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, however, there were always going to be different levels of metaphor and meaning at play. Some fans have read the song as a meditation on relinquishing control: giving in to the thrill of the new. That would certainly be apt as the track emerged from the chaotic, drug-fuelled sessions that spawned White Pony – Deftones’ transformative third album and a turn-of-the-century art-metal masterpiece.
The Sacramento band had already established themselves as a unique proposition with 1995 debut Adrenaline and ’97 follow-up Around The Fur. They’d been lumped into the nu metal scene prevalent at the time but in truth they always stood apart, with a less predictable atmospheric churn accompanying the crunch. White Pony still threw an absolute curveball of expansive ideas and sonic experimentation.
