DEFTONES Drummer Explains Why ‘Eros’ Album Remains Unreleased

BLABBERMOUTH.NET

DEFTONES' Abe Cunningham has explained why the band has yet to release its long-shelved 2008 "Eros" album. According to the drummer, the LP — the last to feature bassist Chi Cheng before a car crash put him in a coma that lasted until his death in 2013 — was never finished. In a new interview with Download TV, Cunningham said: "It was never completed, and that's what people don't get. Like, 'What, you're just sitting on it?' and I mean, no, we're not just sitting on it, we never finished it... There's a lot attached to it as well, you know? And I understand that people are passionate about that and they want to hear Chi's last musical contribution." DEFTONES singer Chino Moreno told The Pulse Of Radio a while back why the band decided to keep "Eros" under wraps. "Some of it was out of respect for Chi — 'Let's just put this album, you know, in a vault for a while and, you know, hold on to it,'" he said. "It's the last thing that Chi's played on, so we hold it very dear to us. It's something that we have under our belt and when we feel the time is right we'll put it out." Cunningham told Download TV that DEFTONES have broached the subject of issuing some of the material from the record, saying: "We've talked about putting out maybe a condensed version or an EP of four or five songs, something like that, and that kind of makes sense. But we have to get into all the legalities of it, and all that stuff, and also we have to finish it. But yeah, it would be nice for that to see the light of day, definitely." DEFTONES have just completed mixing their ninth studio album during the COVID-19 quarantine, with Cunningham saying the LP could arrive in September. Earlier in the month, DEFTONES postponed their 2020 European tour due to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. The trek, which was originally set to kick off on June 9 in Lyon, France, will now take place next year. DEFTONES is Moreno, Cunningham, programmer Frank Delgado, guitarist Stephen Carpenter and bassist Sergio Vega.