The last Deftones album nearly broke up the band, but from the sounds of it, the angsty alt-rockers are back to being one big happy family.

"Things are better than they've ever been," says bassist Chi Cheng from a tour stop in Vancouver, where he's about to hit the streets in search of the biggest bookstore in Canada. "We're all getting along really well as friends, everyone has found their own groove, it's cohesive with everyone else's groove, and we're all humble and happy to still be in a band."

The news should come as a comfort to those Deftones fans left troubled by reports of in-fighting and estrangement while last year's Saturday Night Wrist disc was being made.

First, lead singer and guitarist Chino Moreno had a well-publicized falling-out with producer Bob Ezrin, who claimed Moreno "came unprepared, came late, missed days (and) didn't show up" to sessions in Connecticut.

Moreno eventually laid down his vocal tracks with the help of a different producer, and while band members have admitted publicly the rift nearly spelled the end of the band, what Cheng describes as the "most tumultuous time of our career" actually proved to be a blessing in disguise.

For one thing, it reminded the Deftones crew they have no interest in splitting up, even if the dynamic between bandmates is sometimes as anguished as one of their songs.

"It's like being in a really dysfunctional marriage, where you're wife is a hermaphrodite and she's given you herpes," Cheng laughs. "Don't do it."

When the band last played Winnipeg back in April 2006, they were headlining a Taste of Chaos bill that also included Thursday, Thrice, and As I Lay Dying. Their current tour marks the first time they've crossed Canada on their own since the release of the acclaimed White Pony disc in 2000.

"I think for our fans, this Canadian run is indicative of what we love to," says Cheng. "Playing smaller venues and really reaching out and getting down and dirty with our fans."

The band has barely had a break since their last visit -- Cheng says they've been on the road for 15 months straight now, and when their Canadian leg is over, they'll have played 246 shows.

But in true kinder, gentler fashion, they've discovered ways to stave off the inevitable wear-and-tear of the road: guitarist Stephen Carpenter is a golf nut, for instance, while Cheng can usually be found with his nose in a book.

"I'm a voracious reader, so I read anywhere from 10 to 20 books per tour," says Cheng, who's currently in the middle of Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point, a book about forgiveness by the Dalai Lama, and Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician by Big Fish author Daniel Wallace.

"I've always gotta have a dessert book," laughs Cheng, who also dabbles in written- and spoken-word poetry. "I'll read a heavy book on history or religion or philosophy, and then I'll have to throw in a (Chuck) Pahlaniuk or a (Charles) Bukowski.

"You know, something light."