Album Review: Crosses - Crosses

Deftones frontman Chino Moreno has always been open about his influences and the way bands like Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran and The Smiths have shaped his musical vision.

 Although he obviously became part of a radically different scene than the above-mentioned names, there is something from those 80's records that Moreno carried with himself: the cryptic lyrics which are more often portraying a feeling of confusion rather than directly articulated melancholy, the fragileness in his voice, often in contrast with his screams and the heaviness of Deftones.

But this creative bi-polarity is now temporarily put on hold and we see a more focused Chino Moreno in the first full length album of the electronic-driven collective Crosses, featuring Shaun Lopez and Chuck Doom, and also former Guns N' Roses/Velvet Revolver bassist Duff McKagan who is having a guest spot on the track This is a Trick (or †is is a † rick if you like). Their self-titled album is actually more like a compilation – it takes the tracks from the two self-released EP's from 2011 and 2012 and has four new songs.

However, listening to the it, you don't have the feeling that Crosses are filling blank spots or are recycling old material. † † † flows perfectly and it's actually one of those records which is not just a collection of randomly assorted songs, it's really an album and it's very pricisely put together. Especially in terms of combining the minimalist nature of their songs with the lush production, which kind of reminds me of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hesitation Marks' – another recent example of the way an album can still be a vital form of art.

 My personal highlights on Crosses' debut are '1987', which is about the year his sister first gave him a Depeche Mode cassette and the 'i-can't-finish-the-album-because-i'm-putting-this-on-repeat-once-again' track 'Option'.

So with three solid albums in two years with Moreno on the lead (Koi No Yokan by Deftones, Palms by Palms and now Crosses), it would be a wild guess to say what can we expect next from him. But the most obvious answer would be that it won't be more of the same for sure.