Deftones – Saturday Night Wrist

On album number five Deftones consolidate their position as the poster boys for credible heavy music with an exhilarating tour de force that dazzles with its confidence and energy. Although the band are working with a limited palette, the scope of their sound is still immense. Sheets of crushing, melodic guitar crash sideways into Moreno's devastating, chiming vocals, before the music ruptures and pulls apart under the weight of its own intensity, giving way to a series of thunderous, sludgy riffs that manage to push all the right buttons without sounding like second-hand goods.

Moreno's love of eighties rock and pop keeps the vocal lines interesting, while the apocalyptic fervour of tracks like Rapture confirm the fact that far from being over the hill, Deftones are a band at the very height of their powers. The embarrassing contribution by Giant Drag's Annie Hardy on Pink Cellphone stops this from getting five skinnys, but this is still one of the albums of the year. [Jay Shukla]