It's been three years since the Deftones released their last album of all-new material. But guitarist Stephen Carpenter says the group wasn't sweating the long wait for the new "Saturday Night Wrist," which, as previously reported, arrives Oct. 31 via Warner Bros.

"There was no specific timetable at all," Carpenter tells Billboard.com. "We know how we work. We figure we do it at our own pace -- sometimes fast, sometimes slow. It's definitely been slow as of late, but our agenda is no agenda, if that makes any sense. [We're] just having a good time."

But Carpenter acknowledges that making "Saturday Night Wrist" was arduous and involved "working with different people in different places and dealing with forces of the unknown." The group started its fifth full-length in 2003 with Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, then worked with Bob Ezrin (who recorded most of the instrumental tracks), Terry Date and Shaun Lopez.

During the process, frontman Chino Moreno released an album and toured with his side project, Team Sleep, while Carpenter compiled the 2005 "B-Sides & Rarities" set "to put something cool out for the people who had been waiting a long time for our [new] record."

Despite all this, Carpenter contends "it's all great. It would be the same outcome on any other record. It was quite demanding at times throughout this process, but it's just nice to hear the songs done." The album's first single, "Hole in the Earth," is already out, the product of "just jamming around 'til we found a good idea and building on that," according to Carpenter.

For now, the Deftones are busy on the Family Values tour, which runs until Sept. 22. Carpenter says the outing has been "really good fun" but says the band's participation came via "an act of deception."

"We were gonna go on tour with Korn -- that's what we were told," he says. "We didn't know about Family Values until after it was set up. But there have been a lot of good shows. We're happy we're doing it."