It has a much different feel than prior efforts, due in small part to Frank Delgado leaving his turntables behind and instead focusing on playing keyboards and synthesizers for a majority of the songs.

On the other hand, the track "Lucky You" is a dark, soft, trip hop-influenced piece featuring DJ Crook from Moreno's side project Team Sleep and vocalist Rey Osburn of Tinfed.

As the lead single, "Minerva" featured a melodic, commercially viable sound and gained strong rotation on mainstream rock video programming.

Upon its release, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the album as a disappointment compared to the rest of the band's catalogue.

[10] Rolling Stone stated, "This is metal that crushes, then soothes; collapses, then soars... Deftones just blow open the possibilities".

When Chino's not screaming, he's generally busy turning 'Deftones' into 'Tonedef', improvising a series of randomly-pitched moans which seem never to have shared so much as a rehearsal room with their generic metal backing, let alone a chord sequence.

"[12] During a 2020 interview with Metal Injection, frontman Chino Moreno expressed his dissatisfaction of the album for both personal and musical reasons.

Despite the strong initial sales, it quickly became apparent that the album did not match the success of White Pony after its first month; the band's label described it as a commercial disappointment.