Saturday Night Wrist is the fifth studio album by Deftones, released on October 31, 2006, by Maverick Records. Despite early contributions that were later scrapped, it marked the departure of Terry Date, who had produced the band’s first four albums. It was also the last Deftones album with bassist Chi Cheng, as well as the last album of his career and his lifetime, prior to being involved in a serious car accident in 2008, which put him in a coma. He eventually died five years later from cardiac arrest.
Saturday Night Wrist was the product of an arduous and stressful creative process lasting roughly two years and straining relationships within the band. Inspiration for the album was also largely influenced by the singer Chino Moreno‘s drug addictions and the crumbling of his marriage. As such, he ranks it as his least favorite Deftones album. The final result was an album met with praise from fans and critics alike, with some critics applauding the album following the band’s self-titled effort.
Moreno described the lyrical subject matter of some of the songs in later interviews. He explained that “Kimdracula” was part of his email address at the beginning of making the record, during his heavy drug-use phase. “Beware” was a warning to others about sex, drugs and drinking, which were the three main problems he encountered during the album’s creation. A story about a witch that Moreno wrote during his drug phase was told in “Rivière”. “Cherry Waves” was about testing the trust a person has in someone else. The confusion Moreno experienced when making Saturday Night Wrist was illustrated in the song “Rapture”. Communication issues between the divided band, during the making of the album, were captured in “Hole in the Earth”.
Moreno explained the record’s title as being a reference to the nerve damage caused when an intoxicated person falls asleep on their arm. He elaborated on the title, referencing:
“When you’re alone on Saturday nights and your only best friend is your shaking wrist”.
Tracklist:
- Hole in the Earth
- Rapture
- Beware
- Cherry Waves
- Mein (featuring Serj Tankian) Deftones, Serj Tankian, Shaun Lopez
- U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start (Instrumental)
- Xerces
- Rats!Rats!Rats!
- Pink Cellphone (featuring Annie Hardy) Deftones, Annie Hardy
- Combat
- Kimdracula
- Rivière
- Drive (featuring Shaun Lopez) iTunes bonus track
Deftones
Chino Moreno: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Stephen Carpenter: lead guitar, drums on “U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start”, keyboard on “Beware”, bass on “Beware” and “Xerces”
Chi Cheng: bass, backing vocals
Frank Delgado: keyboards
Abe Cunningham: drums
Additional musicians
Serj Tankian: additional vocals on “Mein”
Annie Hardy: additional vocals on “Pink Cellphone”
Production
Produced by Bob Ezrin and Deftones
Vocals produced and additional production by Shaun Lopez
Recorded and engineered by Brian Virtue and Brian Humphrey
Drums on “Beware” recorded by Joe Johnston
Assisted by Robert “Flossy” Cheek at The Spot, Sacramento, and The Hangar, Sacramento
Pro Tools engineer: Ryan Gorman
Recorded at the Carriage House, Stamford, Connecticut; The Spot, Sacramento; The Airport, Burbank, California; The Hangar, Sacramento; Morning View House, Malibu, California
Mixed by Ryan Williams
Mixed at Pulse Recordings, Los Angeles, California and Westlake Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California
Assistant mix engineer at Westlake Recording Studios: Brian Warwick
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York, NY
Creative direction and design: Frank Maddocks
Photography by Lego
Images from the motion picture Roxanna courtesy of Retro-Seduction Cinema
Chi Ling Dai Cheng (July 15, 1970 – April 13, 2013)
