Watch Deftones play unreleased ‘Eros’ rarity ‘Melanie’ for first time since 2008 at Dia De Los Deftones

Deftones broke out unreleased ‘Eros’ rarity ‘Melanie’ for the first time in nearly two decades at this year’s Dia De Los Deftones. Check it out below.

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The alt-metal icons broke out the song this weekend (Saturday November 7) as they headlined their Dia De Los Deftones festival at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

This year marked the seventh instalment of the annual event, which sees them curate two stages with an eclectic mix of genres, as well as host art installations, local vendors and exclusive merch.

Over the years, they have lined-up performances from the likes of Turnstile, Clipse, Doechii, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, 2Hollis, Knocked Loose, Gojira, IDLES, Ecca Vandal, Future and more.

Fechando a edição de 2026 com um set de 20 músicas de abertura, Chino Moreno e companhia trouxeram os clássicos favoritos dos fãs, incluindo ‘My Own Summer (Shove It)’, ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away)’ e mais, mas também surpreenderam os fãs com uma música que não tocavam ao vivo desde 2008.

That song was the rarely played ‘Melanie’, which they wrote for the 2008 album ‘Eros’ – an LP that Deftones were recording at the time their late bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a car crash in 2008.

He remained in a semi-comatose state for several years, and so the group decided to shelve the album and start fresh with fill-in bassist Sergio Vega, eventually returning with ‘Diamond Eyes’ in 2010.

Cheng passed away in 2013 and ‘Eros’ has remained unreleased. In 2014, on the one-year anniversary of Cheng’s death, Moreno shared a studio version of ‘Smile’, the only track to ever be liberated from the album, and they only played it live in 2019.

No Dia De Los Deftones 2026, eles tocaram “Melanie” daquele disco pela primeira vez desde 2008, e o vocalista disse ao público depois que “Esta música não existe”.

The band have yet to say anything more about why they reintroduced the song back into the set after so long, although it does come after outlets including Stereogum and The PRP reported that a leak of the unreleased album surfaced online earlier this summer, alongside demos of their ‘Ohms’ album.

While the ‘Eros’ album has remained largely under wraps for years now, Moreno did reveal to NME back in 2020 that he was open to one day finishing the album as “an experiment’.

He concluded: “To do that with every song and then write from that place, it’s emotional. There are a lot of things tied to that album. It would be interesting to [finish] at some point, and I’ve never said that we won’t.

Há momentos em que penso que seria um experimento do qual eu poderia aprender.

Other artists who performed at Dia De Los Deftones this year included The Neighbourhood, AFI, Bktherula, Converge, Jehnny Beth, Ladrones, Lip Critic, and LustSickPuppy.

Deftones lançou seu 10º álbum de estúdio, “Private Music”, no verão passado, e o NME o premiou com as cinco estrelas completas, dizendo: “Muito bem, uma jornada inteira através de um sonho febril cheio de corpo e expansivo, mas desta vez de alguma forma espiritual, íntimo e direto, o 10º álbum dos Deftones é um presente para fãs antigos, novos e certamente encontrando-os no futuro muito distante.”.

It was later named as one of NME’s albums of 2025, while its epic single ‘Milk Of The Madonna’ also made our Top 50 Songs of 2025 list.

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