Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by frontman vocalist Chino Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, and drummer Abe Cunningham, with bassist Chi Cheng and keyboardist/turntablist Frank Delgado joining the lineup in 1990 and 1999, respectively. The band's experimental nature has led some critics to describe them as "the Radioheads of metal".

After the line-up settled in 1993, the band secured a recording contract with Maverick Records, and subsequently released their debut album Adrenaline in 1995. Extensive touring and word-of-mouth promotion of the album helped Deftones garner a dedicated fan base. Their second album Around the Fur (1997), reached chart positions along with its singles, and became the band's first to receive certification from the RIAA.

The band found even further success with their third album White Pony (2000), which marked a transition from their earlier, more aggressive sound into a more experimental direction. Its lead single "Change (In the House of Flies)" is the band's most commercially successful single, and the track "Elite" won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance; it was also the band's first of three albums to be certified platinum in the United States. Their self-titled fourth album was released in 2003. While the group's critical success continued, sales proved to be lackluster compared to White Pony. Deftones' fifth studio effort, Saturday Night Wrist (2006), received similar praise, although the album's production was marred by creative tensions and personal issues within the band, some of which influenced its material.

In 2008, while Deftones were working on an album tentatively titled Eros, Cheng was involved in a traffic collision. As a result, he was left in a minimally conscious state until his death in 2013 of cardiac arrest. After Cheng's accident, Deftones halted production on Eros and recruited Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega until his departure in early 2021. The band released the critically celebrated Diamond Eyes in 2010 and embarked on a triple-headline tour with Alice in Chains and Mastodon throughout North America. Their seventh and eighth albums, Koi No Yokan (2012) and Gore (2016) respectively, saw the band continue to move in an increasingly experimental direction and were released to critical acclaim. Their latest album, Ohms (2020), received significant critical praise for its return to the band's heavier sound. Deftones recruited touring bassist Fred Sablan in 2022 and is currently working with them on a new album as well as touring with them.