MX

"MX" is about toxic hangers-on who floated around the early Deftones scene like wasps and barflies. "The whole thing has to do with greed," Moreno told Dutch press in Melkweg, Amsterdam, during an October 13, 1997 interview. "The way women, the way I kind of perceive women that surround me, at least, has always been like take, take, take, and you can only give so much, and then it's like, 'what do I get?'" His frustration gets pretty extreme as he imagines shoving her over a railing, but Moreno is known as a sensitive, compassionate soul, and it's safe to guess that he was just being hyperbolic for poetic effect.

As Moreno sings, Annalynn Cunningham, wife of drummer Abe Cunningham, occasionally talks to him so that the song becomes a conversation between the two. She was initially hesitant to be on "MX" but quickly fell into the sinister role and had fun with it.

Pretty much from the moment the song was released, rumors have circulated that the title "MX" is an abbreviation of a woman's name. But Deftones has addressed this directly and explained that it's actually referring to Max Cavalera, singer of Brazilian-American metal band Soulfly. Moreno thought the riff for "MX" sounded like something Soulfly would do, so they called the song "Max" until entering the studio where guitarist Stephen Carpenter removed the "a" from the name and left only MX. Cavalera plays guitar and sings on "Headup," another track from Around the Fur.