MattA75's Full Review: Toxicity by System Of A Down
Back in 1999, an upstart hard rock/metal quartet took radio by storm on the strength of a single called Sugar. It was one of those songs you either loved or hated from the get-go. I was in the camp of the latter. I hated that song with a furious passion not seen since Marcy Playground'sSex and Candy was coming on the radio every 5 minutes. The band behind the song, System of a Down, was destined, in my mind, to become a one hit wonder and fade off into obscurity, never to bother me again. About the only good thing I had to say about them was that they at least had something to say, but at the same time, they were so irritating. I thought nothing of it when I heard in June of 2001 that a new System of a Down record would be out in the fall. "Yep, that one's gonna bomb," I said to myself. Well sh*t, don't I have egg on my face right now?
Titled Toxicity (a play on the words "toxic city") after their Los Angeles/Hollywood recording base, this album is brutal and beautiful, loud yet refined. It is a shockingly good record that gets my nod for best album of the year over Tool because I never in a million years thought this band could come up with something so good.
System of a Down is made up of four members, all of Armenian descent. They are unafraid of writing highly charged political lyrics to go along with their very high energy brand of metal. The members are:
Serj Tankian-vocals
John Dolmayan-drums
Daron Malakian-guitars, vocals
Shavo Odadjian-bass
Together, they are an extremely tight unit and it's obvious from the get go that they take their craft seriously.
I buy my crack, I smack my b*itch, right here in Hollywood
Prison Song starts things off in a most incredible way. It has kind of a marching drumbeat and the guitars are very crunchy and the song rocks hard. But the lyrics are the most hard hitting thing, as they reach out and grab you, even if you don't necessarily agree. It's one of those "foreboding" songs with a dark message about the future, almost kind of "1984"ish.
Pull the tapeworm out of your a*s
The next song, Needles, is lyrically reminiscent of the Tool song Ticks and Leeches. More dark imagery persist throughout this song ("But I cannot grow, till you eat the last of me oh when will I be free"), but it's the hard hitting music that grabs you quicker than the lyrics do, except in the case of the repeated chorus, above in italics.
Speaking of repeated choruses, it's the one thing that System of a Down do on this album that is absolutely irritating. The first couple of times, you don't mind it, you think they're going for the whole FDR emphasis thing, but after hearing it on a majority of the songs, you want to scream "shut up and sing something other than that one line over and over!!!"
Jet Pilot has some lyrics that are frightening when held up against the events of 9/11. Granted, my interpretations of songs tend to be even darker most times than what the writer actually meant, but this song just sends chills up my spine.
The first single, and the song that drew me to this album in the first place, was Chop Suey!. The exclamation point is placed perfectly by the way, because this might be one of the better mainstream metal songs I've heard in a long time. The slow parts are melodic and rhythmic, with some great drumming. The thrash parts are even better though. It will have you grooving and banging your head at the same time. And lead singer Serj Tankian's voice sounds wonderful.
While 2 or 3 of these songs are kind of repetitive musically, the trifecta that closes the album (Toxicity, Psycho and Aerials) shows that the band could be a very diverse band. They let the songs move themselves along, and these songs, even less so than the rest of the album, do not sound forced or fake at all. They are by far the 3 most refined tracks on the album musically, and to me, it shows the band underwent a huge amount of growth just in the recording process of this album alone.
If you were like me, and hated Sugar, and wrote off this band as one that would be gone within a couple of years, I strongly suggest you listen to this record. At worst, it's a good metal record to the most hardened of metal listeners. At best, it's a masterpiece destined to be a part of every metalhead's CD collection for years to come.
The highly anticipated sophomore album for System Of A Down truly captures what hard rock is all about. The first single, Chop Suey!, is rapidly climb...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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