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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the band. For their eponymous album, see System of a Down (album).
System of a Down
System of a Down in Wantagh, New York on August 5, 2012. Background information SOAD Also known as System Glendale, California, USA Origin Alternative metal, progressive rock, Genres hard rock, experimental Years 19942006, 2011present active Sony Music, American, Columbia Labels Achozen, Axis of Justice, George Associated Clinton and His Gangsters of Love, Scars on Broadway, Serj Tankian and acts The F.C.C., The Apex Theory www.systemofadown.com Website Daron Malakian Serj Tankian Shavo Odadjian John Dolmayan Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian
Members
Past members
System of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is an Armenian American rock band from Southern California, formed in 1994. It currently consists of Daron Malakian (vocals, guitar), Serj Tankian (lead vocals, occasional keyboards and rhythm guitar), Shavo Odadjian (bass, background vocals) and John Dolmayan (drums). The band achieved commercial success with the release of five studio albums, of which three debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, and their song "B.Y.O.B." won the Best Hard Rock Performance of 2006. The group went on hiatus in August 2006 and reunited in November 2010, embarking on a tour for the following three years.
Contents
1 History o 1.1 Soil (19921994) o 1.2 Demo tapes and signing (19941997) o 1.3 System of a Down (19982000) o 1.4 Toxicity and Steal This Album! (20012003) o 1.5 Mezmerize and Hypnotize (20042006) o 1.6 Hiatus (20062010) o 1.7 Reunion and tour (2011present) 2 Politics 3 Style o 3.1 Lyricism o 3.2 Music o 3.3 Influences and comparison to other artists 4 Awards and nominations 5 Members 6 Discography 7 References 8 External links
History
Soil (19921994)
Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian attended Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School as children, although due to their eight-year age difference they did not meet until 1992 while working on separate projects at the same recording studio.[1] They formed a band named Soil with Tankian on vocals and keyboards, Malakian on vocals and guitar, Dave Hakopyan (who later played in The Apex Theory/Mt. Helium) on bass and Domingo "Dingo" Laranio on drums. The band hired Shavo Odadjian (another Rose and Alex Pilibos alumnus) as manager, although he eventually joined Soil as rhythm guitarist. In 1994, after only one live show, and one jam session recording, Hakopyan and Laranio left the band, feeling that it was not going anywhere.
System of a Down's former drummer, Ontronik Khachaturian, briefly reunited with the band at a show at The Troubadour in 1999, filling in on vocals for an ill Tankian.[2] In 2000, the band contributed their cover of the Black Sabbath song "Snowblind" to the Black Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black 2.
Guitarist Daron Malakian met Serj Tankian for the first time in 1993 before forming the band a year later. On September 3, 2001, System of a Down had planned on launching their second album at a free concert in Hollywood as a "thank you" to fans. The concert, which was to be held in a parking lot, was set up to accommodate 3,500 people, however, an estimated 7,000 to 10,000 fans showed up. Because of the large excess number of fans the performance was cancelled by police officers just before the group took the stage. No announcement was made that the concert had been cancelled. Fans waited for more than an hour for the group to appear, but when a banner hanging at the back of the stage that read "System of a Down" was removed by security, the audience rushed the stage, destroying all the band's touring gear (approximately $30,000 worth of equipment) and began to riot, throwing rocks at police, breaking windows, and knocking over portable toilets. The riot lasted six hours, during which six arrests were made. The band's manager, David "Beno" Benveniste, later said that the riot could have been avoided if the group had been permitted to perform or had they been allowed to make a statement at the concert regarding the cancellation. System of a Down's scheduled in-store performance the next day was cancelled to prevent a similar riot.[5] The group's big break arrived when their second album Toxicity debuted at No.1 on the American and Canadian charts, despite the events of September 11. The album has eventually achieved 3x multi-platinum certification in the US[6] and has since sold over 12 million copies worldwide. It was still on top in America during the week of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the political environment caused by the attacks added to the controversy surrounding the album's hit single "Chop Suey!" The song was taken off the radio as it contained politically sensitive
lyrics at the time such as "(I don't think you) trust in my self-righteous suicide." Regardless, the video gained constant play on MTV as did the album's second single, "Toxicity". Even with the controversy surrounding "Chop Suey!" (which earned a Grammy nomination), System of a Down still received constant airplay in the United States throughout late 2001 and 2002 with "Toxicity" and "Aerials". In May 2006, VH1 listed Toxicity in the No.14 slot in the 40 Greatest Metal Songs. In 2001, the band went on tour with Slipknot throughout the United States and Mexico. Following a performance in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Odadjian was harassed, ethnically intimidated, and was physically assaulted by security guards backstage, who then dragged him out of the venue. Odadjian received medical attention from police and later filed a suit against the security company.[7] Despite the incident, the tour was a success and System of a Down and Slipknot went on the Pledge of Allegiance Tour with Rammstein in 2001. In late 2001, unreleased tracks from the Toxicity sessions made their way onto the internet.[8] This collection of tracks was dubbed Toxicity II by fans. The group released a statement that the tracks were unfinished material and subsequently released the final versions of the songs as their third album, Steal This Album!, which was released in November 2002. Steal This Album! resembled a burnable CD that was marked with a felt-tip marker. 50,000 special copies of the album with different CD designs were also released, each designed by a different member of the band. The name of the album is a reference to Abbie Hoffman's counter-culture book, Steal This Book as well as a message to those who leaked the songs onto the internet. The song "Innervision" was released as a promo single and received constant airplay on alternative radio. A video for "Boom!" was filmed with director Michael Moore as a protest against the War in Iraq.
Serj Tankian has gained reputation for his large vocal range along with his unusual tactics. Between 2004 to 2005, the group recorded the follow-up to Steal This Album!, a double album, which they released as separate installments six months apart from each other, notably including
album cover artwork by Malakian's father, Vartan Malakian, which was designed to connect the two separate album covers. The first album, Mezmerize, was released on May 17, 2005 to favorable reviews by critics. It debuted at No.1 in the United States, Canada, Australia and all around the world, making it System of A Down's second No.1 album. First week sales rocketed to over 800,000 copies worldwide. The Grammy Award-winning single "B.Y.O.B.", which questions the integrity of military recruiting in America, worked its way up the Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts. The next single, "Question!" was released with Shavo Odadjian co-directing the music video. Following the release of Mezmerize, the band toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada with The Mars Volta and Bad Acid Trip supporting. The second part of the double album, Hypnotize, was released on November 22, 2005. Like Mezmerize, it debuted at No.1 in the US, making System of a Down, along with The Beatles, Guns N' Roses, and rappers 2Pac and DMX, the only artists to ever have two studio albums debut at No.1 in the same year.[9] In February 2006, System of a Down won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for "B.Y.O.B.", beating out other established artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Robert Plant. Their second single off the Hypnotize album, "Lonely Day" was released in March in the United States. System of a Down released "Kill Rock 'N Roll" and "Vicinity of Obscenity" as their next promo singles. The band headlined Ozzfest 2006 in cities where tour founder Ozzy Osbourne opted not to appear or was not playing on the main stage. Whereas on System of a Down's previous albums most of the lyrics were written and sung by Tankian and the music was co-written by Tankian and Malakian (and sometimes Odadjian) much of the music and lyrics on Mezmerize/Hypnotize were written by Malakian who also took on a much more dominant role as vocalist on both albums, often leaving Tankian providing keyboards and backing vocals. System of a Down's song "Lonely Day" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance in the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, but lost to "Woman" by Wolfmother. In May 2006, the band announced they were going on hiatus. Malakian confirmed the break would probably last a few years, which Odadjian specified as a minimum of three years in an interview with Guitar magazine. He told MTV, "We're not breaking up. If that was the case, we wouldn't be doing this Ozzfest. We're going to take a very long break after Ozzfest and do our own things. We've done System for over ten years, and I think it's healthy to take some rest."[10] System of a Down's final performance before their hiatus took place on August 13, 2006 in West Palm Beach, Florida. "Tonight will be the last show we play for a long time together," Malakian told the crowd during Sunday's last performance. "We'll be back. We just don't know when."[11] May 2006 also saw the UK publication of a biography of the band entitled System Of A Down: Right Here In Hollywood by writer Ben Myers. It was published in the US in 2007 through The Disinformation Company.
Hiatus (20062010)
Malakian announced he was forming a band called Scars on Broadway, which was joined by Dolmayan. Tankian released his debut solo album Elect the Dead in the autumn of 2007 to great critical and commercial acclaim. Malakian and Dolmayan released Scars On Broadway's debut self-titled album on July 29, 2008. Dolmayan, alongside working with Scars on Broadway, formed his own band, Indicator, as well as opened Torpedo Comics, an online comic book store.[12] Odadjian pursued his project with RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, a hip-hop group named AcHoZeN, worked on his urSESSION website/record label, and performed as a member of funk legend George Clinton's backing band.
its just not passing Serjs RULES! . Kinda funny, since we started the band and now hes holding us back!!" [sic][21] While he has since removed the posts from his page, System of a Down's official Facebook page later responded to Shavo's posts with the following statement: "Earlier today, Shavo posted a few statements on his personal Facebook page that do not reflect the sentiments of System Of A Down as a collective band. These were misleading statements that were made during a temporary state of bad judgment on his part alone. To be clear, the full band lineup of Serj, Daron, Shavo and John will be performing all scheduled tour dates. With respect to new SOAD music, although we have not agreed on a timetable for a new album, we all believe that having the four of us do it together is the way to be true to the band and our fans."[22] While commenting on the future of System of a Down, singer Serj Tankian stated that he "can't write a forced record", an action he described as "romancing someone at a time you don't want to be romantic." He added that "a new record requires three years" and it is not "something [he] can do right now."[23]
Politics
Concert footage and interviews with the band concerning the importance of helping create awareness and recognition of the Armenian Genocide were featured in the 2006 film Screamers, directed by Carla Garapedian. An interview with Tankian's grandfather, a survivor of the Genocide, was also included in the film as well as Tankian's and Dolmayan's meeting with (then) Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert during which the two musicians campaigned for the United States government's official recognition of the Genocide. Footage of Tankian and Dolmayan marching with protesters outside of the Turkish embassy in Washington D.C. was also used in Screamers.
Style
Lyricism
System of a Down's lyrics are often oblique[24] or dadaist,[24] and have discussed topics such as drug abuse,[24] politics[24][25] and sexual intercourse.[24][25] All four members are of Armenian descent, and are widely known for their outspoken views expressed in many of their songs confronting the Armenian Genocide of 1915 as well as the ongoing War on Terrorism.
Music
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic stated "Like many late-'90s metal bands, System of a Down struck a balance between '80s underground thrash metal and metallic early-'90s alternative rockers like Jane's Addiction".[26]
The stylistic variety and level of experimentation[27] in System of a Down's music has made it difficult to describe, but the group has, for the most part, maintained a single style throughout their body of work. This style has variously been termed alternative metal,[26] alternative rock,[28] art rock,[29][30] experimental metal,[31] experimental rock,[32][33] hard rock,[26][34] heavy metal,[26] new prog,[35] nu metal,[36][37] progressive metal,[38][39] progressive rock[40][41] and thrash metal.[42] Malakian has stated that "We don't belong to any one scene"[43] and that "I don't like the nu-metal drop-A 7-string guitar sound; it is not my thing, at least not yet."[44] In interview with Mike Lancaster, he also said, "People always seem to feel the need to put us into a category, but we just don't fit into any category."[45] According to Tankian, "As far as arrangement and everything, [our music] is pretty much pop. To me, System of a Down isn't a progressive band. [...] But it's not a typical pop project, obviously. We definitely pay attention to the music to make sure that it's not something someone's heard before."[46] The band has used a wide range of instruments, such as electric mandolins, baritone electric guitars, acoustic guitars, ouds, sitars and twelve string guitars.[47] According to Malakian, he would often write songs in E tuning, which would later be changed to drop C tuning in order to be performed by the band.[44] Malakian states that "For me, the drop-C tuning is right down the center. It has enough of the clarity and the crisp soundmost of our riffy stuff is done on the top two strings, anywaybut it's also thicker and ballsier."[44]