DEFTONES last month entered a Sacramento, California studio with producer Terry Date (SOUNDGARDEN, PANTERA) and engineer Scott Olson (DEFTONES, UNEARTH) to begin recording the band's sixth studio album, "Eros", tentatively due before the end of the year.

Commented the group's turntablist/keyboardist Frank Delgado: "[We're] well into our first week of recording for the new record. Very exciting times, indeed. A lot of love, blood, sweat and tears has gone into our studio, which has been home for the last eight or so months. Along with the writing, major revamping has gone into The Spot, and from the sounds of it, it's definitely paying off. All of this work has allowed us to do what we've wanted for the longest time — record a record at our place, on our time, on our dime.

"Feels so good to be back with Terry and Scotty. Spirits are high (and so is Stef [DEFTONES guitarist Stephen Carpenter).

"We're on our way to making the best DEFTONES record yet!"

DEFTONES singer Chino Moreno recently told UK magazine Kerrang! that the songwriting for the new CD was coming along much faster than it has in the past. Moreno said, "We've certainly taken our time on the last few records but this one has happened very quickly. We got off tour and took a month off. Then we went into the studio and wrote a lot of music very quickly...The most important thing we had to do was to break our habits and change the way we've done things for the last few years."

Moreno explained that the band took much longer to come up with material in the past because "everyone was working separately. We would record our parts and then email them out without actually seeing each other...This time, we were all together and that really helped."

The band's last CD, "Saturday Night Wrist", came out in October 2006 and its creation nearly resulted in the band's demise. But Moreno said, "Our working relationship is better than it's ever been before. As a result, everything has improved -- our friendships and our lives. We're all really happy now."