††† (Crosses) – “Initiation” & “Protection”

††† (Crosses) – “Initiation” & “Protection”

††† (aka Crosses), the duo of Deftones singer Chino Moreno and producer/multi-instrumentalist Shaun Lopez, returned last Christmas Eve with a cover of the great Q Lazzarus hit “Goodbye Horses” — their first new song since 2014. Today they’ve got a pair of new originals to share, “Initiation” and “Protection,” as well as a video for the former.

Both tracks put Moreno’s unmistakable woozy melodic vocals in a more electronic context than we’ve come to expect from Deftones. “Initiation” is the anthem of the pair, huge and sweeping, while “Protection” almost reminds me of a Drake deep cut, from its low-slung vocal to the way it fills out a slow-creeping hip-hop beat with shadowy atmospherics. Or maybe it’s just a trip-hop homage?

Hear both songs below.

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