Deftones

In the ten years since the release of their debut, Adrenaline, Deftones have outlasted the copycats, persevered through the inevitable collapse of the nu-metal movement, and held on to a considerable fan base spanning over several sub genres. B-Sides and Rarities consists of a handful of unreleased tracks along with a DVD compiling all of their music videos to date. For anything more than the casual Deftones fan, this warrants a definite purchase on the strength of the DVD alone — witnessing the band’s appearance, production and presentation evolve through the years is a fascinating experience, if only to see how effectively Deftones have weathered the trends and delivered consistently gripping, distinctive releases. The audio portion is admittedly a hit-or-miss affair, focusing a tad too heavily on cover tunes ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s "Simple Man” (the disc’s arguable high point) through to a rendition of the Cocteau Twins’ "Wax And Wane,” which leaves much to be desired. Several alternate takes on original numbers appear as well, the most noteworthy of which is the celebrated acoustic version of "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away).” Those not familiar with Deftones’ prior output could do without this, although it is a more-than-adequate attempt at tiding over aficionados of the group until the upcoming full-length.