Koi No Yokan is the seventh studio album by the American alternative metal band Deftones. It was released on November 12, 2012 by Reprise Records[4], and was produced by Nick Raskulinecz[4][5], which was the last album to be produced by him until private music (2025).[6] Its title is a phrase from the Japanese language "恋の予感", translating to "premonition of love".[5][7] The album was met with widespread acclaim from critics upon its release, and sold an estimated 65,000 copies in the first week.[8] The album debuted at No. 11 on Billboard 200, and placed No. 5 on the Top Rock Albums.[9] According to Nielsen Soundscan, the album has sold 350,000 copies in the US as of July 2025.[8][10]
Band frontman Chino Moreno characterized the album as "dynamic" with a full range of noise, noting an increased contribution of ideas by bassist Sergio Vega compared to their previous record, Diamond Eyes.[11] A major change in the recording process came with the use of the Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx preamp/effects processor, which creates the sound of multiple outboard amps and pedals and allowed for different tones. Vega claimed that the band was able to "bring Fractal into hotel rooms and run it into software and record ideas and flesh them out later". The group tracked guitar, bass and vocals, then recorded drums and replaced the guitar, bass and vocals. Vega confirmed that "everything was organic".[12]
The band announced the album as well as a tour for the album on August 30, 2012. On September 19, 2012, the band released the song Leathers as a promotional single via a free download on their website.[22][23][24][25]Leathers was released as the album's first single on October 8, 2012. It was also released as a limited-edition cassingle with Rosemary on the B-side.[26] On October 3, 2012, the song Tempest premiered on PureVolume for streaming.[27]Tempest was released as a single on October 9, 2012.[28]
Koi No Yokan was released on vinyl in four versions: a standard retail version pressed on 140-gram black vinyl (3,000 units), a direct-to-consumer version on 180-gram black vinyl with foil-stamped numbered jackets (1,000 units), an international edition pressed on 180-gram vinyl and an exclusive edition sold through Hot Topic retailers pressed on 140-gram clear-colored vinyl (1,500 units).[29]
The band launched a tour on October 9, 2012, which ended on November 21 in Los Angeles. Before the album was released, the band played at venues with seating capacity between 1,000-4,000 to allow fans to hear the music early.[30]
The album was met with overall critical acclaim. The aggregate review site Metacritic assigned an average score of 86 to the album based on 18 reviews, indicating "Universal Acclaim".[32] With this score, Koi No Yokan was among the eight best-reviewed albums of 2012.[42] Gregory Heaney of AllMusic wrote, "While a lot of bands out there have been tinkering with the loud/quiet dynamic for decades now, what makes Deftones so special is their ability to do both at the same time, effectively blending the calm and the storm into a single sound".[33] Mischa Pearlman of BBC Music wrote, "It transcends the boundaries and expectations of its genre--even those previously set by the very band that made it".[43] Al Horner of NME said of the album, "It's a shotgun blast of cranked guitars, bruising hardcore and canyon-sized choruses, and it's mesmerising".[4] Greg Fisher of Sputnikmusic called it "a remarkably consistent effort" that "glitters with supreme melodies as much as crushes with massive riffs showcasing the quintet's most accomplished material in over a decade".[41]Rolling Stone called the album "adventurously aggressive" and stated, "Koi No Yokan ranges from brutal, blunt-force trauma (in reference to Gauze) to epic prog-rock atmospherics (in reference to "the sprawling, enchanting Tempest"). Opener Swerve City sets the tone immediately with a bludgeoning riff, but Deftones also take nuanced approaches to angsty tension, weaving meticulously crafted cosmic rock on Entombed and wading through murky, jagged textures on Rosemary".[20]
In May 2013, Revolver named Koi No Yokan as the Album of the Year at the fifth annual Revolver Golden Gods Award Show.[44] In 2024, Loudwire staff elected it as the best hard rock album of 2012.[45]
1 2 3 Wheeler, Brad (November 16, 2012). "Ruth Minnikin's new album invites you into her heart and hearth". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 18, 2012. Koi no Yokan is a Japanese phrase referring to the feeling, upon first meeting someone, that you will eventually fall in love. Though it might be facile to suggest that the phrase applies equally to the music on this album, it wouldn't be far from wrong. The Deftones have always had a way with instrumental sound, pulling elements from metal, alt-rock and shoegaze to create an emotionally evocative wall of guitars, but this time around the textures are even more closely tied to the songwriting. Perhaps that's why the songs seem more deeply engrossing, from the darkly churning textures of Gauze to the almost pop-flavoured melodies of Entombed. -J.D. Considine
↑ "Deftones, 'Koi No Yokan' – Album Review". Loudwire. November 12, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2016. Overall, if the Smashing Pumpkins were heavier, ballsier and angrier, they'd make albums that sound like this, since Deftones do have an alt-metal vibe. Moreno's lyrics are often from-the-journal-page and stream of thought, making them entirely open-ended and capable of attracting the disaffected.
↑ "Deftones - Koi No Yokan [Album Review]". AbsolutePunk.net. Retrieved March 7, 2016. [...] the band is taking the experimental elements of Saturday Night Wrist and evolving it with the sound they created on Diamond Eyes. Unlike its predecessor however, this album has more of bassist Sergio Vega's handprints over it, as he and drummer Abe Cunningham's percussion skills give Koi No Yokan its backbone throughout. Carpenter will keep listeners guessing with the twists and tempo changes within his guitar work.
↑ "Album Review: Deftones – Koi No Yokan". Consequence of Sound. November 20, 2012. Retrieved March 7, 2016. Koi No Yokan sees the Deftones fully embracing the shoegazer elements that were only experimented with on past albums [...] Opener "Swerve City" sways between delicate jangles (during verses) and dominating groove metal (during the chorus).
↑ Heaney, Gregory. "Koi No Yokan". AllMusic. Retrieved November 14, 2012. In their continued exploration of the intersection of heaviness and harmony, Koi No Yokan finds the band returning with a warm, dreamy sound that feels more like heavy dream pop or shoegaze than light metal.
↑ Rowe, Riley (April 7, 2016). "Gore – Deftones". Metal Injection. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
↑ Brown, Dean (November 19, 2012). "Deftones - Koi No Yokan". PopMatters. Retrieved June 3, 2016. "Tempest" utilizes the capture-and-release found in post-rock/metal instrumentation[...]The mid-section of "Rosemary" come as close to doom metal as Deftones have ever ventured
↑ Dick, Jonathan (May 3, 2016). "Deftones' Chino Moreno On Surviving, Evolving And 'Gore'". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved June 3, 2016. From the trip-hop nuances of its self-titled album in 2003 to the bleak math metal tendencies of 2006's Saturday Night Wrist to the goth-rock tinged shoegaze of 2010's Diamond Eyes to the prog-rock flirting of 2012's Koi No Yokan, Deftones' catalogue reads like a case study in how a band can translate influences into a sound that's definitively their own.
↑ The album continues where 2010's Diamond Eyes left off, bonding streamlined mosh-pit daggers with floaty space-station distress calls. [23 Nov 2012, p.70]
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