The Deftones have resurfaced and announced they have put their 2008 unreleased record Eros on the backburner and have been in the studio recording a new, more “optimistic” record with former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega. Not sure about you, but a record named after the mythological god of sex sounds pretty fucking optimistic as it were.

Unfortunately, time hasn’t done much for Deftones’ bassist Chi Cheng. He is still in a semi-conscious state in a California hospital after a brutal car wreck in 2008. “With everything we were going through, the Deftones needed to pour all of our thoughts, energy, and emotions into something new [and] I couldn’t tour behind a record with all these memories of Chi attached to it,” Chino Moreno explains to Spin.

The not-yet named album (maybe ?), which is slated for release in May, will fuse together “aggressive overtones and lush openness,” Moreno says.

They’re on opposite sides of the spectrum, but we meld them together without sounding contrived. There are a few heavy songs, too, like our first couple records, and there are also experimental tunes — but there’s not a minute on this record that feels like it doesn’t need to be there. Each sound complements the other.

Lyrics will focus on creating “beautiful yet violent” images rather than self-expressive “storytelling.” Chino says it’s one of their best albums, stating that he can’t do a recording without smoking weed. We know, Chino, we know. Eros will appear when the time is right. “[It was a] dark record for us and it’s special because it’s the last thing that Chi played on… [but] we needed to create something more optimistic.”

Additional contributor: Di Lynn Ring