System of a Down "Toxicity"

http://adamantinum.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/toxicity1.jpg

A few weeks away from this album's 10th birthday...

Also for people who want to respond by saying "horrible band" or "this band sucks" there's one of these: Love/Hate: System of a Down

Fucking LOVE this album. Jet Pilot.

I think it still holds up extremely well.

I am a total dick about nu metal generally, but always thought these guys had enough old school thrash/crossover influence in their sound to make them interesting. Dunno what I'll pick, though, but good album!

I went with "Deer Dance". Psychotic little tune, that one.

Probably the title track but I expect "Chop Suey" will win? FU if u hate these guys btw

huh. wow. i don't know. "forest"? but then, "needles." huh.

I would have no problem with any song winning.. they're all fucking awesome.

Chop Suey has the cool subtle instrumentation that I didn't notice the first 40 times I heard it on the radio.

they're trying to build a prison....

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

Chop Suey is prob my favorite overall song but I don't wanna be predictable and vote that.

"Needles" because it rocks something fierce.

It's a good gym record.

tbh i prefer Mezmerize and the self-titled album, not very into stuff like "Toxicity" and "Aerials"

i'm with you on that. Toxicity has never been my favorite studio album of theirs.

Toxicity
Not just because my friend told me it was 'cider! cider! the soiiiiiderrrr!' the first time I heard it.

wheeeeen i became the sun i shone life into the JANSPORT!

hahaha

blast off, it's party time, and we all live in a fascist nation

wrong album?

yeah but it's a classic line

Shimmy

I haven't heard this album for ever. The girl I was dating when this album was fresh out did an awesome "Chop Suey" at karaoke.

I'm totally burned out on "Chop Suey", guys. Like, maybe permanently.

Still tons of great songs on here. I'm voting either "Forest" or "Needles", but "Atwa", "Shimmy", "Aerials", and "X" I like almost as much...

It's a good gym record.

My thoughts exactly.
Can't help but associate Avril Lavigne's "Chop Suey" cover with this, though I do remember enjoying it. Crazy that this is gonna be 10 years old.

listening to this today

MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES

This band is doomed to be underrated.

Deer Dance 4EVA! I don't understand why that wasn't the single. Holy mackerel.

I cannot choose, this album is amazing. All the songs sound a bit the same, but somehow SOAD make that into a plus point.

Maybe Prison Song though, great statement of intent.

INDOCTRINATION
OF OUR NATION
INDOCTRINATION
OF OUR NATION

you know i might vote "forest" or "atwa" but i am now most moved by the wild insistent stomping of the title track

it is like a march with some of the elements subtracted

coda of "psycho" is a fucking spiral

in case you didn't know

Makes you high makes you high makes you really wanna go STOP!

Noel Gallagher: "Do you ever look at the sky and think, I'm glad I'm alive? After I heard System of a Down, I thought, I'm actually alive to hear the shittiest band of all time. Which is quite something when you think about it. Of all the bands that have gone before and all the bands that'll be in the future, I was around when the worst was around."

This made me love System even more.

Also they're one of the best live bands I've ever seen.

That Noel Gallagher quote is amazing, he should stop making music and concentrate on just giving interviews. And yes System of a Down were spectacular live. I drove from Cardiff to London on the spur of the moment to see them and they totally made it worth the journey.

Wow, that's a hefty journey!

really love the big singles off this record -- eating seeds as a pastime activity reminds me of 9th grade geometry class

Chop Suey, title track, Aerials, was there a fourth single?

xp sorry markers but title track is my least favorite song on this

"Deer Dance" otoh--I had forgotten about that song, but that song is f'in killer!!! and the way it segues into "Jet Pilot" is brilliant

"Prison Song" was an airplay-only single with a live video but not a hit like the other 3

I hated Chop Suey for the first 20 times I heard it - generally on MTV - but then I kinda gave in to the awesome video and the next 200 listens were awesome. Good album.

I haven't heard this album for ever. The girl I was dating when this album was fresh out did an awesome "Chop Suey" at karaoke.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, August 8, 2011 6:42 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

jon you went out with Avril Lavigne??!?

SHIMMY SHIMMY SHIMMY TIL THE BREAK OF DAWN YEEEEAWWWWWW

^^ put this album in like once a year, get restless after one or two tracks and have to switch it to this and repeat

blast off, it's party time, and WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?

this album fucking rules

Pretty fun record. Even the closing instrumental is cool.

Have you guys all heard Steal This Album? It's remarkably good for a bits n bobs album, on some days it's my favourite of theirs.

SHIMMY SHIMMY SHIMMY TIL THE BREAK OF DAWN YEEEEAWWWWWW

― Peepee Soaked Heckhole (zachlyon), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 12:30 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Can't be said enough imo.

Is Shimmy gonna win? I might go with ATWA.

I also like System of a Down more because Pitchfork didn't put them in the P2K best of the decade thing.

of course they didn't.

i listened to this album today, was better than i remember. i love how everything zips by so fast that "Aerials" feels like this long drawn out epic when it's actually less than 4 minutes long.

btw apparently SOAD played some shows together recently, for the first time in like 5 years! i had no idea! no confirmation that they'll be making a new album or anything, but it's still really encouraging to hear, they're one of those bands that i love but i just can't stand any of the offshoot bands or solo projects.

Serj's first solo thing was pretty much shite, though it did gift the world with the excellent song title 'Beethoven's Cunt'.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

software version seven point imo

HOW DO YOU OWN DISORDER

preferring "Toxicity" to "Chop Suey!" is so fucked

Wtf these results are so boring

ilx not cool enough to know SOAD past the singles (and even if we did a singles poll those same 3 songs would get almost all the votes)

Does anyone have a link to that amazing "Toxicity" promo poster that lists 9-11-01 as the release date? Someone posted it on here once and I can't find it.

I dunno like 7 people said they loved Shimmy so I assumed it would get more than 1 vote.

"chop suey!" is pretty much permanently tied to that fall for me when i was a freshman in high school

Yes, me too. I remember not liking it at all at first, and I remember the Friday afternoon when my friend turned me around on both "Chop Suey!" and "I'm A Slave 4 U."

markers and i are the same age! huh.

i'm 24

both of us with a nu-metal ditch in our narratives

ilx not cool enough to know SOAD past the singles (and even if we did a singles poll those same 3 songs would get almost all the votes)

― some dude, Saturday, August 13, 2011 8:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

guilty as charged, but if you included serj singles i'd throw a bone to Empty Walls

It's not like this is a difficult album to get into... Listen to the non-singles. Every song on this album is good. I promise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgP_2zf0NV8

both of us with a nu-metal ditch in our narratives

― mutant slow drum (BradNelson), Sunday, 14 August 2011

aw yeah -- still not 100% out of the ditch (via listening to a little staind earlier)

I can't believe I was the only shimmy vote. :(

markers spending half of his thread posts quoting BYOB should have been a good indication that they're considered a singles band to most people.. I figured ILM knew better. I'm like disappointed n stuff.

shit, this album is some dope shit

many popular bands are considered singles bands to most people who aren't hardcore fans of the band

beyond the singles, i really don't care much about soad

nothing wrong with that, i was just expecting more love for the non-singles.

wonder how many ppl have heard the non-singles -- i think there's a copy of this record in my house somewhere, but i don't even know if i ever listened to the entire thing

Didn't see the poll. But I love this record! Glad to see ILM giving it what it deserves. Too bad they were never able to come close to it again.

man, i was re-listening to some of these singles and they're so much better than fuckin "b.y.o.b."

"byob" and "question!" were the only singles from mezmerize and that's weird to me because over half of that album is like TREMENDOUS HOOKS COMING YOUR WAY WATCH OUT

well, there were only 6 months between it and the next album, so they only had time for two singles cycles. but yeah that album totally should've had more singles (and maybe something besides "question!" for the 2nd).

were there any notable singles between "sugar" (when i first heard of the band probably, on 107.3 waaf iirc) and "chop suey!"?

the only other single off the first album was "Spiders," which is good if not great

i remember the high school friend i worked summer jobs with from 98 to 2000 was really pumped about "Sugar" and turned me onto that first SOAD album. he was also the first person who played Aquemini for me. he wasn't one of my cool music nerd friends but in retrospect he was pretty on point.

i just listened to "spiders" and don't know if i've ever heard it before, but it's not bad -- really can't remember having heard anything but "sugar" pre-toxicity though

i do, however, recall my freshman year geometry teacher saying "eating seeds as a past time activity" in class

the first SOAD album was a real sleeper hit, took two years to go gold and neither of the singles got into the top 20 of the rock charts, but then "Chop Suey!" blew up and their fanbase gave them a #1 album. it's kinda badass when a band goes from cult act to big deal kind of instantaneously like that.

Oldie but goodie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daJm1-oIheg

I can't believe I was the only shimmy vote. :(

― ladies love draculas like children love stray dogs (ENBB), Sunday, August 14, 2011 4:18 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

could've sworn i voted! i wouldn't even consider another song, tho there are some great ones.

well, there were only 6 months between it and the next album, so they only had time for two singles cycles.

totally makes sense yeah but i'm extra-bitter because i don't care for either of the hypnotize singles

"Lonely Day" is terrible but "Hypnotize" is of their best songs ever imo. i basically think that SOAD have 4 classic singles and they're the lead single from each album, the follow-ups always pale in comparison.

^i would disagree with that assertion (though Toxicity is like my second least favorite song on here)

anywyaz, wow these results are awful!

I should get this album, huh

yes!

I mean, I know I would love it, I love pretty much every SOAD song I've ever heard; I just have been lazy about getting around to it (ditto Deftones, actually)

xp "Spiders" usually makes the cut for my Halloween mixes.

i'm listening to this all the way through right now, and in my not really paying attention state i can definitively say that, as of :37 seconds into "bounce," the non-singles aren't as good as the singles

also, jason derulo just released his new single right here at spotify

markers i think you'll like ATWA

smh markers

listened to the whole thing. i've heard at least some of the non-singles before, but none of them stood out to me enough that i'm remembering them over an hour later. to their credit, though, the big three singles are very much tied to a time in my life and it would be harder for me to feel attached to the other songs even if they were better than they are

another reason i like the big three singles is because they don't seem as overtly heavy-handed lyrically as something like "prison song" or "b.y.o.b."

they could still be heavy-handed -- i have no idea what "eating seeds as a past time activity" means or what a lot of the other stuff they're saying means, and i haven't sat down to try and parse the lyrics -- but they don't jump out to me in a bad way

"Lonely Day" is terrible but "Hypnotize" is of their best songs ever imo.

agreed on how "lonely day" is ugh jesus why, but i think "hypnotize" would be great if i didn't feel like it were in search of a chorus.

also markers offtm right now, listen to the record again dude

"Hypnotize" is of their best songs ever imo.

I agree with this, so dynamic. Especially the instrumental folky middle eight bit.

Also, Radio/Video should've been the second single off Mesmerize.

lol okay I just listened to this entire album for the first time

what the fuck was I waiting for

so awesome

I am listening to this whole album again for the second time

it's basically a gigantic reminder that yes, I am capable of liking loud guitar music

heard "Sugar" on the radio today and it was a gigantic reminder that i love SOAD

it bums me out that they did some shows together last year but this year Serj is back to another stupid solo record. imo SOAD are one of the most extreme cases of the solo/side projects being not that different from the main band but somehow not 1% as good, those guys really need each other.

software version 7.0

Wtf these results are so boring

― billstevejim, Saturday, August 13, 2011 8:28 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark

I feel like I miss these guys a little extra of late. (Also, they were way ahead of the left zeitgeist on the whole prison-abolition tip.)

Toxicity
Or aerials. Hard to decide

SOAD politics seemed pretty regular post RATM? I'm not sure they were saying anything I wasn't hearing from the anarcho-punks I was hanging out with back then.

I'd probably throw a boring vote to Toxicity as well. Did anyone figure out what happened to this band, btw? Major breakthrough, big dominant double album, but with a newly dominant voice asserting himself, then nothing... Seems like a good story for a tell all book.

Deer Dance. 17 years later it still sounds strange.

SOAD politics seemed pretty regular post RATM?

With the benefit of a little more specificity, plus of course all the wacky stuff.

As far as the extended hiatus goes, no idea what that's about. If the Parts Unknown ep is anything to go by, Tankian at least seems like a sweet guy

One of the few times in rock history where a long recording hiatus is literally mostly down to what you might call "creative differences."

https://www.stereogum.com/2005685/system-of-a-down-new-music-explanation/news/

Whenever it happens it's gonna rule.

Title track is my least favorite. Top 4 for me are Forest, Atwa, Chop Suey, and Aerials

Caught these guys last night... automatically slotted into my top 5 all-time concerts.

setlist
http://i63.tinypic.com/2qlr5lx.jpg

Would've voted for Needles btw.

holy shit that's a setlist

It woulda been difficult for me to choose between 'Needles', 'Forest', 'ATWA' or 'Psycho' ...

holy shit that's a setlist

― Ross, Wednesday, October 17, 2018 11:08 AM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah they just kept rolling out smash after smash. Lonely Day was the only real breather but even it kinda rocked cos everyone was screaming along, never liked that song but it made sense in that setting, the harmonies were so on point.

they're back playing shows? I thought they were feuding again

OCT 17
VALLEY VIEW CASINO CENTER
SAN DIEGO, CA

OCT 19
T-MOBILE ARENA
LAS VEGAS, NV

looks like that's all for now

it's a 5 show tour ending in a festival headline. all out west here. quick cash grab I'm sure.

Yeah, this is a surprise to me too... the last I heard, Daron was ranting that Serj wasn't into doing any new material?

wait the headline show was the sacramento show. yeah they are still beefing but maybe this will help to mend fences who knows.

acc to that Stereogum story, iirc they don't have much of an issue playing the old stuff live, all the conflict seems to be around new approaches to hypothetical new stuff.

That's a great setlist, nice to see so much from Steal This Album.

Glad they're busting out a lot of Steal This Album tunes, it's really underrated.

totally

i loooove spiders too, classic track

Wouldn't be at all bothered if they never played or mentioned Lonely Day again, however.

This band hits different these days

every System of a Down song is like—

i’m the mushroom man, i’m the mushroom man. oh ho! oh! oh! In June 2003, Amnesty International published reports of human rights abuses by the U.S. military and its coalition partners at detention centers and prisons in Iraq.[26] These inclu-

— mister cries at work (@mistermoviespod) August 12, 2021

That's good

In the wake of responses to the Woodstock 99 documentary I wanted to Tweet this:

Nu metal activated my white male rage and me and my bros got in a System of a Down mosh pit and dismantled the prison industrial complex

why is this album so good?

"Toxicity" probably is the strongest overall, "Chop Suey!" maybe the most classic, but also most classically silly, "Forest" and "Science" deserved more love. Also kind of wish the "Chop Suey!"/"Crocodile Rock" mashup was an option.

"Prison Song" was my first exposure to any discourse on that topic. But the HBO doc would never dare acknowledge anything like that and mess up their entirely logical narrative.

tbh I would pump the mushroom man sound. It sounds dope as fuck.

*song, not sound