![]() ![]() Period.System of a Down (also known as SOAD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. And crucially, the way all these songs gel together into one compelling call to action against senseless violence, environmental destruction and capitalist exploitation. The chanting-chugging "Needles." The Kool-Aid-man-crashing-through-the-wall intensity of "Bounce," "Shimmy" and "Psycho." The screaming-toward-the-sky gravitas of "Forest," "Toxicity" and "Aerials," the latter being System's second-best song (sorry, it just is). The jump-scare heaviness of "Prison Song. The fact that a song like "Chop Suey!" - with a chorus about "self-righteous suicide" and angels who deserve to die - became the cultural phenomenon it did is a minor miracle, and while that Grammy-winning hit stands as System's best song, hands down, the album that surrounds it is similarly breathtaking. This is SOAD's magnum opus, a pinnacle of alt-metal that more than satisfied heavy music's need for lyrical nuance and political valence at the tail-end of the vapid nu-metal era. Will Hypnotize forever remain System's final album? If so, it's an underratedly great way to go out. To some System fans, the polarizing ditty sounds like saccharine radio-courting crap to us, the emotionality rings true and the earworm hook is undeniable. Unfortunately, the juvenile lyrical whiffs make their way on here, too, tainting otherwise catchy tunes like "Kill Rock 'n Roll" and "She's Like Heroin." Then there's "Lonely Day," a sentimental ballad that became one of System's biggest hits despite not sounding like anything else they've ever released. The majestic "Holy Mountains" rivals the epicness of "Aerials," and as opposed to the clumsiness of Mezmerize, Tankian and Malakian's dueling vocals actually contrast in interesting ways on songs like "Dreaming," "Hypnotize" and "Stealing Society." Moreover, "U-Fig" and "Vicinity of Obscenity" are high-voltage bangers that effectively rekindle the rage of their early work, unlike some of the duds on Mezmerize. ![]() Hypnotize is easily the band's most melodic and eclectic album, and in almost every instance, the band succeed at what they're going for. Placing Hypnotize above their self-titled - and hell, even above Mezmerize - is sacrilege to some SOAD fans, but hear us out. At this point in their career, System knew how to write spectacular songs, but they hadn't yet mastered the album format. At 40 minutes, it's only one track's length shorter than Toxicity but it feels longer, dragging during its back-half when the incendiary push-pull of Patton-gone-grindcore starts to lose its edge and blur together. Is this a perfect album, though? Musically speaking, no. While the band's politics got muddied by sophomoric humor and nonsensical language on later releases, Tankian was crooning, shrieking and growling about some serious fucking shit on this album, delivering righteous sermons on genocide, religious extremism and other human moral failings, while his bandmate's playing teetered on the precipe of madness without ever falling over the edge. The open-hand cover (a nod to anti-fascist German protest art) is a brilliant distillation of SOAD's whole vibe, and songs like "Suite-Pee," "Spiders" and "Sugar" are three of the best they've ever released. System of a Down's self-titled debut is one of the nu-metal era's most iconic albums. "Cigaro" and "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song" fail to match the gut-punching intensity of System's older, heavier songs, and both of those - along with the borderline cringey "Violent Pornography" - are plagued by nonsensical and/or desperately edgy lyrics.įortunately, in most every way that Mezmerize fails, its companion piece succeeds. Closer "Lost in Hollywood" is a haunting meditation on fame, but its sibling track, "Old School Hollywood," fumbles with instantly dated synths and grating vocoder. "Revenga" and "Sad Statue" are late-career highlights that flex their melodic muscles, and the klezmer chaos of "Radio/Video" is a ton of fun, if not a little silly. Of course, "B.Y.O.B" is one of the band's biggest and, no matter how many times you've heard it, endlessly enjoyable songs. Forged in the heat of intra-band tension between Tankian and his bandmates, the record saw Malakian taking on way more singing duties, making System's sound significantly more dynamic - which could be both a strength and a weakness. The first half of System of a Down's quasi-double-album has some of their most beloved material on it, but as a full body of work, there's a lot to be desired here.
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