Yeah, Deftones for me are a band that have changed a lot, and much for the better. There's no way Koi No Yokan could be called Nu Metal, it's almost psychedelic metal, it makes me feel like i'm in space listening to that album. Magnificent. The farther back into their catalogue you go, the less I get out of it. They have become significantly more sophisticated over the last decade.
I don't dislike genres as a rule, there's usually somebody doing good work in any genre, but the bands I think are considered the leading lights of "nu-metal", like Linkin Park and Disturbed I do not like. To me they just took all the work bands like STP and AiC did breaking down the conventions of rock, and put them all back again, keeping only the blandest parts of what came before.