On June 20, 2000 — the twenty-seventh birthday of vocalist Chino Moreno — Sacramento alternative metal band DEFTONES released their third studio album White Pony through Maverick Records. Produced by Terry Date alongside the band, the album represented a radical creative leap, departing from the abrasive nu-metal of their earlier work toward a lush, atmospheric record blending shoegaze textures, post-rock space, and crushing heavy passages. Singles "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Back to School (Mini Maggit)" demonstrated the band's commercial reach, while deeper cuts revealed a genuinely experimental artistic vision. White Pony received universal critical acclaim, won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance for "Elite," and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. It is now considered one of the greatest alternative metal albums ever recorded.
