Dia De Los Deftones 2018
Deftones at Dia De Los Deftones 2018 (more by Tojo Andrianarivo)

Deftones' Chino Moreno covers Christian Death with Death Valley High (listen)

Death Valley High is releasing a new EP, Duel, this Friday (8/23) via Minus Head Records, and each song sees them in a “duel” with a different guest artist, including Chris Connelly (Revolting Cocks), Hanin Elias (Atari Teenage Riot), and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, who’s on the just-released cover of Christian Death‘s “Cavity – First Communion.” The roots of this collab can be traced back to when Death Valley High toured with Chino’s band Crosses (†††) in 2014, as DVH’s Reyka Osburn tells Revolver:

We were on tour with Crosses on the East Coast and were all backstage hanging out. Chino had some music playing in the background for post-show vibes, and when this Christian Death song came on, I burst over to their room. We all fawned over our love for this particular record, Only Theater of Pain. By the end of ‘Cavity-First Communion,’ he says, ‘We gotta play this song before the end of the tour!’ ‘DONE,’ I firmly agree and added, ‘We should RECORD it!’ He looked at me with eyes ablaze and exclaimed, ‘We can do ANYTHING!’

Fast forward, the tour ends, and we never get a chance to play it! But I had already taken the collaboration to heart. DVH started discussing an all cover mixtape of sorts, one where we would collaborate with friends on each song. After prepping a rough draft, I sent it over to Chino’s approving: ‘I’m IN.’ After some time went by, we realized our remake was just a little too faithful to the original, so we started asking, ‘What’s actually new here to offer?’ If we had done it live, we probably would’ve done just that: a faithful tribute to a classic. But since we were committing to a studio recording, we all knew we had to circle back and rekindle it. After all, this was some sacred ground we were treading! We can now comfortably say that we’ve done our honest best — contributing to the original, not just done a cover for the sake of doing one.

Listen to the cover and see the EP tracklist and list of DVH tour dates below.

Meanwhile, Deftones are throwing their annual Dia De Los Deftones on November 2 in San Diego with CHVHRCHES, Gojira, Megan Thee Stallion, JPEGMAFIA, Hum, Youth Code, and Brutus. They’ve also been talking about a new album for a while now… hopefully we get more info on that soon.

Tracklist
1. “Here Comes the Rain” (Death Valley High vs. Chris Connelly)
2. “Cavity – First Communion” (Death Valley High vs. Chino Moreno)
3. “Cruel Summer” (Death Valley High vs. Hanin Elias)
4. “The Crab Song” (Death Valley High vs. Rykarda Parasol)
5. “Jump In The Fire” (Death Valley High vs. Spirit in the Room)
6. “SUNSHINE CLEANERS” (Death Valley High vs. Paul Wiley remix)
7. “MERCI” (Death Valley High vs. sondottir remix)
8. “The Present” (Death Valley High vs. Hounds remix)
9. “ICK SWITCH” (Death Valley High vs. Carlton Bost remix)

Death Valley High — 2019 Tour Dates
08/20: Las Vegas, NV @ The Boxx Eastside †
08/21: Pomona, CA @ Characters †
08/22: San Jose, CA @ Back Bar ∆
08/23: Santa Cruz, CA @ Poet & Patriot ∞
08/24: South Lake Tahoe, CA @ Whiskey Dicks ∞

support:
† THEM GUNS
∞ BITTER LAKE
∆ Rare Americans (headline)