Deftones released the original CD edition of Saturday Night Wrist on October 31, 2006. Their fifth studio album followed a recording process that had stretched across producers and studios while relationships inside the band were wearing thin. Getting the same five people moving in the same direction had become difficult.
The record opened with “Hole in the Earth,” its lead single. Stephen Carpenter told Billboard that the song began with the band jamming, finding an idea they liked and developing it together. Finishing the album around it would involve considerably more stopping and starting.
Early work involved Dan “The Automator” Nakamura before Deftones settled on Bob Ezrin, who recorded most of the instrumental tracks. Terry Date also worked with the band during the extended process, and Shaun Lopez eventually helped complete the record. Rhino’s retrospective describes a substantial reset: Moreno’s earlier vocal performances were discarded and recorded again with Lopez. The instrumental foundations and finished vocals emerged through different stages, with material revisited as the project changed hands. There were other commitments along the way, too. Moreno released an album and toured with Team Sleep, while Carpenter assembled B-Sides & Rarities to give Deftones listeners something during the wait.
Those interruptions happened while the musicians were dealing with problems outside the recording room. In a February 2006 Billboard interview, drummer Abe Cunningham said divorces and a breakdown in communication had nearly split the band. “It was just lack of communication,” he said. Yet Cunningham was already hearing something worthwhile in the new material. He considered the previous, self-titled album incomplete and felt the follow-up better represented the range Deftones wanted to cover.
Moreno’s account was less settled. Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2016, he recalled that he and Carpenter had stopped trying to resolve their disagreements. Neither wanted to make the first move, and the musicians recorded parts separately instead of working through decisions together. He described the finished album as “fragmented.” In his recollection, they had reached a point where neither wanted to argue for an idea or take responsibility for the album’s direction. Completing it meant assembling the pieces they had accumulated.
The finished record still left room for different approaches. System of a Down’s Serj Tankian joined “Mein,” while Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy appeared on the electronic “Pink Cellphone.” The 12-track album also included an instrumental, “U,U,D,D,L,R,L,R,A,B,Select,Start,” alongside heavier material such as “Combat.” Cunningham’s enthusiasm for its range and Moreno’s frustration with its construction reflected very different experiences of the same record.
Saturday Night Wrist debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200, selling 76,000 copies in its first week in the United States. The band also took a practical lesson from making it.
By May 2007, Deftones had set up a writing room backstage while touring the album. Moreno told Billboard that all five members were playing together with their instruments, working through ideas repeatedly until they remembered them. He explicitly connected that approach to wanting to avoid another experience like Saturday Night Wrist. They had only a couple of songs underway, with no firm recording or release schedule, but the method had changed. Before finishing the tour, they were already learning new music together in the same room.
