Deftones are long overdue their flowers. Nu metal innovators - so much so they basically ditched the scene right before it tanked with 2000's boundary-pushing White Pony - they've found themselves in the enviable position of a late career bloom. The rise of -gaze affixed bands spawned in their image has been termed "Deftonescore" (Love Is Noise, Thornhill, Moodring, Split Chain), while metal's sexiest new subgenre baddiecore (Sleep Token, Bad Omens) could hardly have existed without their sensual tones. It's as if the whole world decided overnight Deftones were the most culturally important band since Nirvana.
Which goes some way to explain how Birmingham's NEC is awash in a sea of greebos, goths and generational metalheads on a drizzly Thursday night in February. The BP Pulse Live arena is already filling up by the time openers Drug Church come on. Sounding like someone told Sum 41 to be more like Bad Religion, their fusion of sunny, bouncy beats and thumping hardcore riffs is perfect to get the crowd moving. Vocalist Patrick Kindlon's insistence that the band is built for crowdsurfing proves true as bodies fly over the barriers and by the time the band go off to Weed Pin, the atmosphere is pure electric.
