https://youtu.be/2h8Y2riVs5Y — A Look at the history and Discography of Alternative Metal band, System of a Down. A band that includes Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan. All four band members are of Armenian heritage and have recently come out of their hiatus in order to release two new songs, “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” in order to bring awareness and funding to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war.
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Today we’re talking about a unique Alternative
Metal band that has recently proven that though
they disagree about what direction to take
the band, they can still be friends, play together
and even release new music when they feel their voice
will help bring freedom and happiness to the world.
Stay tuned to learn about the story and discography of
System of a Down.
Though my focus is to tell this band’s story and not
get political, the story truly begins with
the Armenian genocide around the years 1915 to 1917.
Throughout the years, the country of
Turkey has tried to deny that their ancestors
attempted genocide against the Armenian people, but of
course the Armenians that survived this horrible time
period would tell you otherwise.
Serj Tankian was born 21 August 1967, in Beirout,
Lebanon to Armenian parents, all 4 of his grandparents
being survivors of the genocide. When he was 7, the
family moved to Los Angeles where he attended an
English and Armenian Kindergarten to 12th grade school
which all of the founding members of System of a Down
would also (Coincidentally) attend, though Serj was
about 8 years older
than the others.
In college he began to play keyboards and write songs
as well as began spreading awareness of the Armenian
Genocide. His first band was called Forever Young,
with a singer that sang in both English and Armenian.
Serj played keyboards and got some early experience as
a songwriter. Though he enjoyed playing heavier music,
he was very inspired by
Armenian Folk and Classical music.
Jumping over to Daron Malakian, this
Armenian American singer and guitarist
was born July 18th 1975 in Los Angeles, California.
He was exposed to KISS and other metal bands at the
age of 4 and eventually felt
called to the drums but his parents bought him a guitar
when he was 11 because you could turn it off.
In his teenage years he got into The Beatles as well
as started to write songs and hone his unique style.
In 1993, Daron met Serj
While performing in seperate bands that used the same
rehearsal studio. The two of them would create a new
band called Soil with Serj Tankian on vocals and Keys,
Daron Malakian on Vocals and Guitar, David Hakopyan on
bass and Domingo “Dingo” Lararnio on drums.
Shavarsh Odadjian was born in Yerevan, the capital city
of Armenia on April 22nd of 1974. He moved to Los
Angeles at the age of 5 where he would go to the same
school that Daron and Serj attended. He was raised by
his grandmother and was into skateboarding and cites
bands like Dead Kennedys, KISS, Slayer, The Beatles,
and Black Sabbath as major influences.
Shavo was also in a shortlived band that would rehearse
at the same building. He was asked to manage Serj
and Daron’s band Soil then later joined as an official
member before the band broke up in 1994.
When Serj, Daron and Shavo decided to form a new band
in 1995,
the title of a poem Daron had written was considered
for their name but Shavo suggested they change “Victims
of a Down” to “System of a Down” to appeal to a wider
audience as well as to be sorted nearer to one of their
major inspirations, Slayer. Ontronik “Andy” Khachaturian
had already played drums in a band with Daron Malakian
before and was invited to join the new group.
Between 1995 and early 1997 they released 3 demo tapes
to their growing audience in Los Angeles which lead to
street teams of loyal fans that would do whatever they
could to spread awareness of the band. Street Team
members would often spread concert fliers and purchase
or bootleg copies of the tapes for their friends
and family.
This growing popularity along with their already very
loyal local Armenian fan base ensured that the band was
able to pack some of the most famous clubs in Hollywood.
Among other label heads, legendary producer Rick Rubin
became interested in the
group and was planning to come see them
perform at the Viper Room in Hollywood. Unfortunately
the Andy Khachaturian damaged his hand and was told he
wouldn’t be able to play the drums for at least a year.
Once again looking to their friends from the rehearsal
studio, John Dolmayan was asked to fill in for at least
the big gig.
John is of Armenian heritage and was born on July 15th,
1973 in Beirut, Lebanon during their civil war. His
father was a saxophone player and as early as 2 years
old, John was interested in the drums and would mimic
the drummer of his father’s band. His family was
offered asylum in Toronto, Canada where they stayed for
a few years before moving to California when John was
7 or 8. His parents bought him a drum kit when he was
15 and he would practice to his dad’s jazz albums and
the rock albums rotated amongst his friends. He also
cites some of rock’s best drummers as his big influences
especially The Who’s manic Keith Moon.
Shavo says that John learned about 8 System songs in one
practice and naturally fell into his position as the
band’s official drummer. Andy Khachaturian and Soil
basssist David Hakopyan would go on to play together
in The Apex Theory.
After the Viper Room show, the group
created a 4th demo to send to record labels and there
was a bit of a bidding war. But eventually Rick Rubin
won the band over to his American Records with an offer
to also be the band’s producer.
The debut album, System of a Down was released June 30th
of 1998. The album cover is taken from an old anti-Nazi
poster from 1928 German with text refering to 5 fingers
grabbing the enemy. This is referenced on the back of
the cover with a new take on the quote inside of Daron’s
poem that had inspired the band’s name. The poem is
also a good introduction to the band as it is a declaration
of their intent to spread awareness of abuse and promote
personal peace.
Musically the album introduces us to System’s Chaotic
breed of short and fast paced songs that seemed to
ignore most of heavy metal’s typical concepts. The
first album includes some growly vocals from Serj but he
still takes advantage of his very interesting singing
and crazy voices. The fast paced chunky and simplistic
drop C riffs and John’s fast and groovy drumming create
an atmosphere that makes anybody want bounce up and down
or dance. Lots of quick dynamic changes keep
these short songs engaging with switches
between full intensity metal sections and parts that
keep the pacing but try different ways of lightening or
otherwise changing the mood through things like more
melodic guitar and bass parts, guitar patterns in a
higher register and different drum beats. The band also
uses a lot of inspiration from their homeland other
middle eastern musics which is often heard in the rhythms
and melody.
Though the lyrics often deal with
heavy themes, throughout their career, the
vocals and lyrics are often rather humourous or crazy.
A demo of the song about
the Armenian genocide, “PLUCK” had previously been
released on an Armenian compilation album.
The first singles “Sugar” and “Spiders” were a success
and the music videos were shown frequently on MTV. They
went on tours with Slayer and Metallica and even joined
Ozzfest and contributed to a rap rock song on a South
Park album.
The day before releasing their next album, the group
wanted to thank their local fans with a free concert
but when at least 4 time the capacity of people showed
up, the fire marshall cancelled the show and a 6 hour
riot ensued.
Toxicity was released Sepetember 4th of 2001 and
debuted at number 1 in the US and Canada. They continue
to be manic and heavy with lots of changes but I feel
the softer sections of music are more fleshed out and
the whole thing seems like their style is perfected on
this album. While Serj had written the great majority
of lyrics for the first album, Daron Malakian who is
credited for writing the majority of the music contributed
lyrics to half of the songs on this album.
The singles, “Chop Suey!” “Toxicity,” and
“Aerials” all did very well and the music video for
“Chop Suey!” has over one billion views on YouTube.
The music videos for “Aerials” and “Toxicity” were
co-directed by Shavo Odadjian who would continue to
direct videos throughout their career.
Other memorable tracks
include “Prison Song,” “Jet Pilot,” “Bounce” and
“Psycho.”
The Hidden track, “Arto” featuring Arto Tunçboyacıyan
is an adaptation of an Armenian church hymn.
I’m not able to play any of System of a Down’s music
for you but I recorded covers of Aerials and Toxicity,
Here’s a small taste.
I’d really appreciate it if you checked out the full
music videos I made for these two songs. Aerials is
found on Ramiro Escamilla’s drum cover channel and
Toxicity is on Caleb Johnson’s band channel, The Eldritch
Truth where we also recently posted an awesome Tech
Death version of the Simpsons Theme song.
During the sessions for “Toxicity” the band had recorded
over 30 songs before selecting which ones would best
flow together on the album but in early 2002 rough
versions of the unused songs were leaked on the internet.
So the band went back into the studio to finish the
tracks and released the new album on November 26, 2002
properly titled “Steal This Album!” with packaging that
looked like a burned CD.
It’s a very fun album all the way through obviously in
a similar syle as “Toxicity,” some of the
stand out tracks being “Innervision” “Boom!”
and “F the System”
The year 2005 would see the release of two albums that
both went to number 1 in many countries around the
world.
“Mezmerize” was released May 17th 2005 and followed up
6 months later by “Hypnotize” on November 22nd. Both
albums feature artwork by Daron’s father, Varton Malakian
and show that the albums are together in a series.
Either disc alone is a great experience but truly they
feel very much like a concept album when paired together.
The first album, “Mezmerize” begins with a 1 minute
into track titled
“Soldier Side – Into” before going into “BYOB” but the
finale of “Hypnotize” is a song called “Soldier Side”
that has an outro that brings us back to “Soldier
Side – Intro” and repeats the lyrics that
begin “Mezmerize”
A lot of the songs
flow right into each other but really there aren’t many
pauses between any of the tracks and everything moves
together as one epic piece of artwork.
When I was 16, my best friend Colton and my mom were
both enjoying this radio song by this band called
System of a Down and eventually I heard it while riding
in the car with my mom and it just blew my mind. I
always commend anyone that can get something so progressive
on the radio and I still feel the success of “BYOB” is
an extremely rare happening and I’ve brought it up in
conversations about Bohemian Rhapsody. The song title
stands for “Bring Your Own Bombs” and criticizes the
integrity of military recruiting in America with the
…memorable if you can make it out lyrics, “Why don’t
presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?”
Though these albums are still very aggressive and in
your face at times. I feel there is a lot more variety
and
diversity of different feelings and softer secions that
last a lot long than they would have on previous albums.
Another single from “Mezmerize,” “Radio/
Video” and the successful title track from “Hypnotize”
both showed Clear middle Eastern influence and “Lonely
Day” is a much softer song with Daron on lead vocals
and the rare appearance of a guitar solo on a System of
a Down song.
Serj Tankian had different ideas on where to take the
band and it seems he wasn’t as involved in the writing
of these two albums so Daron is the major songwriting
force and he shares vocal duties
almost equally with Serj. Serj sings lead vocals a
little more
than Daron and they often sing together or provide
backing vocals for the other.
In May of 2006 the band declared that they were not
breaking up but had decided it was time for a several
year hiatus. So the guys were free to express themselves
in new ways. Shavo Odadjian experimented in hip-hop
with RZA,
Serj Tankian released solo albums and John Dolmayan
joined Daron Malakian’s band, Scars on Broadway.
Like this video and subscribe so I know to make
mini-docs about those topics.
In 2011 the band started doing tours in different parts
of the world and on April 23rd of 2015 they played in
Armenia for the first time, with a free concert in
Yerevan to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. Throughout the next few years, the
band mates were often questioned about a new album and
it seems there is just too much disagreement on what
direction to take the band in combination with the
desire to create their best album yet if one ever does
come out.
However, in response to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war,
the band came together to record and release two new
songs, “Protect the Land” and
“Genocidal Humanoidz” with proceeds from the songs
helping fund the needs of families that lost their homes
These singles were a “One-Off Kind of Thing” and we
should not expect anything from this band anytime soon
but here’s to hoping!
If you’re new to System of a Down, I always leave
comments in the description for a good spot to start
listening and of course I’d really appreciate it if you
checked out the covers of “Aerials” and “Toxicity” that
I spent a lot of time working on and making music videos
for. Please give this video a “Like,” Leave a comment
telling me what band you’d like to see me do next and
have a happy listening session!
Sean's Music Hunt 
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