Balancing care and chaos: Deftones live in Manchester

The universally loved ‘nicest guy in rock’ famously soldiered on through a leg injury in the summer of 2015 after an ill-advised descent into the photography pit ended in a fractured fibula. Last week, Deftones frontman Moreno experienced a similar situation; he dived down towards the fans at Groezrock Festival in Belgium, and came away with a broken metatarsal.

Trooper that he is, the Sacramento outfit that Moreno heads up called off just one show - in Cologne in the immediate aftermath - and are absolutely none the worse for wear tonight in Manchester. They’re out in support of Gore, their eighth full-length, but it’s taken a while for them to rock up here - the record in question has been out for well over a year at this point.

Perhaps, then, that explains why Deftones seem so unremittingly eager to make up for lost time from the word go. Kicking off with the one-two of “Feiticeria” and “My Own Summer (Shove It)” represents quite the opening salvo - those are, by a distance, two of the heaviest tracks in the group’s catalogue. There’s also no shortage whatsoever of new songs; Gore is the third and final instalment in a frankly miraculous series of releases that dates back to 2010’s Diamond Eyes. You have to bear in mind that, around the time that White Pony was released in the early noughties, this was a band that was widely considered to be part of the nu-metal movement, Their resurrection, with their last three LPs being arguably the finest of their career, represents quite the comeback.

And so it proves at the Apollo this evening (6 May). This is a punishingly loud set that even feels aggressive when the band lapse into some of the mellower corners of their repertoire; ‘Minerva’ is a gorgeous slow burner, and goes down a treat with the crowd, but still feels miles more belligerent than on record. That’s the thing about this set; they could’ve plucked exclusively from Diamond Eyes, Koi No Yokan and Gore and still delivered a genuine stormer of a performance, but instead, it feels like the modern-day material has been eschewed in favour of a career-spanning turn.

It’s one thing to have the big hitters in there - and “Change (In the House of Flies)” and “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” are as vital as ever - but another entirely to include “Entombed”, “Knife Prty” and, during the encore, “Bored”. It’s not that they don’t sound great - it’s just that this is a band who were more than entitled to go all out on their latest LP, should the mood have taken them. As it is, this nuanced run through a slew of fan favourites is more than satisfactory as a substitute.