††† (Crosses) – Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete.

When it comes to Deftones, the conventional wisdom has long been that their frontman, Chino Moreno, is preoccupied mainly with melody and mood, and that their guitarist, Steph Carpenter, is more into his punishing riffery. Somewhere in the space between is where the magic happens, the thing that makes the Sacramento veterans both brutal and beautiful. What, then, to expect when Moreno – who has shoehorned covers of the likes of The Cure and The Smiths into past Deftones releases – ventures off down a side alley?

The first album he made as ††† (Crosses), his collaboration with Far guitarist Shaun Lopez, was a beguiling listen that suggested the pair had ambitions all over the musical map; part dreampop, part alt-rock, part industrial metal, all adding up to the kind of thickly atmospheric sound that will surely have seen them disappointed when David Lynch didn’t call about an appearance at The Roadhouse in Twin Peaks: The Return.

Nine years on, the clunkily-titled Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. features a fair few glimpses of the first album’s greatness, as well as some suggestions that perhaps Moreno and Lopez don’t quite know where they want to go next. The real highlights come when the former goes properly against type and avoids falling into the trap of Deftones-lite fare like lead single Invisible Hand; Moreno really wades into thrilling territory on cuts like the brooding Runner or the softly epic Last Rites. The two high-profile collaborations, meanwhile, are both successes, with El-P contributing a furious verse to Big Youth, while Robert Smith lends a subtle touch of gothic drama to Girls Float † Boys Cry.

Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. is overlong and perhaps too diffuse for its own good, but to hear Moreno wholeheartedly indulge his melodic instincts makes the whole exercise a worthwhile one.

Listen to: Runner, Last Rites, Girls Float † Boys Cry