SOAD’s Greatest - Part I

The day I heard that System of a Down had decided to go on a hiatus to pursue their solo careers was a day of mixed emotions. Even though one of my favourite modern day alternative metal/ nu-metal bands was disbanding for awhile, I thought it would be extremely interesting to see how Serj Tankian (vocals) and Daron Malankian (guitar/ back up vox) would fare individually as both of them relied heavily on each other when it came to song-writing. What followed was satiating to say the least as ‘ELECT THE DEAD (Serj’s debut album) and ‘Scars on Broadway’ (Daron and John Dolmoyan’s first album) lacked the galvanizing System edge that we are so used to associating with System.

Although some tracks on both albums moved away from the System sound and sounded extremely fresh, it wasn’t something that could really take you by storm like say a ‘Toxicity’. The idea behind this list is to pay a tribute to one of my biggest influences as songwriters. System of a Down hoping that they can settle their differences soon and get back together in the studio to kick some corrupt politician’s ass, writing about some political rant or about ‘the war against war’. Hold your horses, my top 10 System tracks of all time are:

10. CIGARO- MESMERIZE-  This track is two minutes eleven seconds of pure thrash metal mayhem. The song sounds extremely disorganized and messy but yet somehow, System manages to make me wanna break a bottle onto someone’s head every time I hear it. Cigaro is extremely fast paced and heavy on the instruments. With lyrics such as ‘My cock is much bigger than yours’ the humour quotient is definitely there to be seen especially since Daron has always seemed to have an obsession with cocks!!

9. LOST IN HOLLYWOOD- MESMERIZE – Lost in Hollywood is one of the mellower system songs. The song has a go at the bigwig Hollywood directors and Hollywood in general as to how they can mislead commoners into believing that they can become big stars. Daron (guitar) takes charge on vocals in this song and his voice suits the mood perfectly. The first time I heard the track, I felt the drumming was ominous to heavy metal but it’s a pleasant surprise to keep the song slow. The guitar and bass brings in some traditional Armenian-style instrumentals into the song and fits in perfectly.

8. SUGAR- SYSTEM OF A DOWN – System’s first ever single to be released. The lyrics of this song are by far one of the best as Serj talks about how drug addicts go crazy when they consume drugs. The song starts heavy with Daron playing some heavy power chords only to slow the tempo down into the verse with some trippy (only so fitting that I mention trippy in this song :D) sounds on the guitar. Serj is at his vocal best in this song with Daron playing a fantastic ally on backups with his disgruntled ‘growls’ and ‘screams’. The outro picks up fantastically as John probably has to probably increase the bpm by 5, every second towards the end.

7. NEEDLES- TOXICITY- Its not one of their most popular numbers but for me its one track that you just can’t get out of your head. It’s as addictive as what the song preaches about drugs…. And how it can completely seize your life and tell you what to do if not careful. It starts off with a trademark psychedelic Daron riff only to break into some pounding on the drums and some heavy riffing. The highlight of the song is the bridge which slows down and has Shavo (bass) build up with some dark notes leading into an eerie arpeggio which has Daron showing his singing prowess. The way they performed the song at Big Day Out was mad crazy!!!!

6. STREAMLINE- STEAL THIS ALBUM- Arguably one of the toughest System songs on the vocals. Serj is seen jumping many an octave in this song especially when he croons on “goodbye”!! One of the few SOAD songs to have a sweet sounding guitar solo. Even though its not that long, one feels Daron should Introduce more solos in their songs even though he feels that System’s songs don’t suit long solos that can completely melt the guitar and the crowds. In trademark System fashion, the song has an arpeggio as clean as a whistle, which leads into some thrash style drumming and barred chords on Drop C. Daron’s tone in this song is as usual amazingly versatile with punk and alternative inspired tones laden with reverb in different parts.