I've spent a significant part of my career covering Deftones albums (just two so far though, but they're not a very frequent event) and albums by bands who sound a lot like Deftones. I made that point in the aforementioned review that a lot of the bands like that that appeared in the past decade which one wouldn't just describe as "alt metal influenced" but "Deftones-core" specifically. One of those bands was Fleshwater, and when I covered their debut, it was at a time when I had already done reviews for similar bands like Loathe and Thornhill, so I spent a significant part of that review trying to stop myself from calling them a Deftones clone and making the case that with so many bands going for that sound it was beginning to be harder to justify reviewing every such band.
Ironically, in the years since I found myself revisiting and enjoying Fleshwater more than either Loathe and Thornhill, two bands that you could say take their sound further away from Deftones than Fleshwater do, and it wasn't until revisiting that review that I even remembered that Fleshwater has such a strong lineup connection to Vein.fm. I vividly remember having the riff from the previous album's "Enjoy" stuck in my head and trying my darnest to remember what Deftones song that was.
Liking a debut so much, even if it took some retrospective growing for that to happen, does make one afraid of the infamous sophomore slump, and it's definitely not helping having your album arrive right after a long-awaited album by the band you're basing your sound on. To get it out of the way, the similarities are immense in the sound, and they're also probably the reason why I connected this much to this band compared to the other two I mentioned, but there's also something specific to Fleshwater's sound that makes them Fleshwater specifically, and most of that comes from the dual vocals approach, with Marisa's taking the biggest share, but DiDio's supplementing that with both croons and harsher screams.
2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky has a lot in common with We're Not Here To Be Loved, with pretty much all songs on this record sounding like they wouldn't be out of place on its predecessor. There are some things I liked about its predecessor though, namely how its songs were pretty short and its "closer to an EP" length made its flow more thrilling, whereas 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky is clearly the more mature of the two, with a more proper runtime and longer songs that feel more developed, but one where the moments where it drags (like that children choir in "Be Your Best") feel more damaging than on its faster paced counterpart.
That maturing does come in terms of its sound too, the longer songs do mean that there's more in the sound that prefers slower paces that diminish the hardcore leftovers from Vein.fm, also leaving less room for DiDio's harsh vocals. What counters this is a push towards interesting riffs and textures, and even though most of them have a lot in common with how that one band also uses them, I will probably end up finding myself in that "Enjoy" situation again, with me listening to Private Music and 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky so much lately, and I've gotten to appreciate the skill it takes to be so convincingly good at making melodies that sound like another band.
It's interesting to see a more differently paced version of Fleshwater, as well as to come to terms and grow to appreciate both the similarities and differences with Deftones. 2000: In Search Of The Endless Sky isn't quite the "Fleshwater capitalizing on what distinguishes them" record that I was hoping for after We're Not Here To Be Loved, but they're inching closer.
