Deftones - 7 Words -

By the time they recorded it for their 1995 debut album, Adrenaline , the song had become their calling card. It was the track that turned their chaotic club shows into literal riots. During the recording sessions at Indigo Ranch, producer Terry Date pushed them to capture that "live" danger, resulting in the frantic, heavy breathing and screeching vocals you hear on the record.

The story begins in the early 90s, long before the world knew the term "nu-metal." Chino was working at a Tower Records warehouse, dealing with the daily friction of being a young person of color in a space where he felt constantly looked down upon by authority figures—specifically the police and "the man."

"7 Words" wasn’t just a song; it was a pressure valve for a nineteen-year-old Chino Moreno working a dead-end job in Sacramento.