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System of a Down

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Revision as of 13:05, 11 July 2007 by 66.240.57.87 (talk) (→Hiatus and the future of the band (2006-present))(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) For the band's self-titled album, see System of a Down (album).
System of a Down
Musical artist

System of a Down (also referred to as System or abbreviated as SOAD) is a four-piece, Grammy-award winning band, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles, California. All four members are of Armenian descent, grandsons of Armenian Genocide survivors, and are widely known for their outspoken views found in many of their songs. System of a Down has achieved commercial success over five albums, with singles such as "Chop Suey!" and "B.Y.O.B.". System of a Down is a part of the Axis of Justice, a non-profit organization formed by band member Serj Tankian (along with Tom Morello) that is dedicated to bringing together musicians, music fans, and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice.

History

Soil (1993-1995)

The roots of System of a Down lie in the band Soil, a group from Los Angeles that included Serj Tankian on vocals and Daron Malakian on guitar, as well as Dave Hakopyan (Bassist for Apex Theory) on bass and Domingo Laranio (Local Hawaii Drummer) on drums. Shavo Odadjian joined Soil near their end as a guitarist. After three years, only one live show, and one jam session recording, the band split up.

In the beginning (1995 - 1997)

After Soil split up, Tankian and Malakian then formed a new band, System of a Down, based on a poem that Daron wrote. The poem's title was "Victims of a Down", but Serj Tankian thought that Victim would only appeal to a narrow audience and the word System would appeal to a larger, more general audience. They called on Shavo Odadjian, with whom they knew from when Soil shared a recording studio with Odadjian's previous band as well as when Odadjian was briefly their guitar player. Odadjian was originally the band's manager and promoter, though he quickly accepted the offer to permanently join the band as bassist. Since then, managerial duties have been undertaken by the highly successful Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and streetwise founder David "Beno" Benveniste. One of SOAD's first releases was "Sugar", which was recorded on their first demo tape, and they have played the song at nearly every live performance since then. The band then found a drummer, Ontronik Khachaturian. SOAD quickly made an early Untitled 1995 Demo Tape, which had very early recordings of "Mr. Jack" (called "PIG"), along with songs called "Flake," "Toast" and an early recording of "The Metro," a cover of the Berlin song of the same name. There were also other tapes made, which contained early recordings of "36" (called ".36"), "Roulette" and "X" (called "Multiply"). After this, the band recorded Demo Tape 1, which had early versions of "Sugar," "Suite-Pee," and "P.L.U.C.K.," as well as the rare track "Dam." Demo Tape 2 was released in 1996 and had a rough demo of the song "Soil" as well as the most known unreleased tracks such as "Honey" and "Temper." At the beginning of 1997, SOAD recorded their final publically-released demo tape, Demo Tape 3, which had rough versions of "Peephole," "War?," and "Know." Prior to 1998, SOAD's live shows were called "The Dark Red Experience." In mid 1997, Ontronik Khachaturian left the band due to a hand injury. Soon after playing at the Whisky-A-Go-Go and Viper Room with new drummer John Dolmayan, producer Rick Rubin caught the band's attention and told them to keep in touch with him. Showing great interest, they recorded Demo Tape 4 near the end of that year. This demo, however, was made only to be sent to record companies. The tape was not released to the public until several years later when it was leaked onto the Internet. After Rick helped them get signed onto American/Columbia Records, SOAD began to record in his studio. In 1997 SOAD won the Best Signed Band award from the Rock City Awards.

Debut album (1998 - 2000)

In the summer of 1998, System of a Down released their debut album, System of a Down. They enjoyed moderate success with their first single "Sugar" becoming a radio favorite, followed by the singles "Spiders" and "War?". After the release of the album, System of a Down toured extensively, opening for Slayer before making their way to the second stage of Ozzfest. Following Ozzfest, they toured with Fear Factory and Incubus before headlining the Sno-Core tour with Puya, Mr. Bungle, The Cat and Incubus providing support. System was scheduled to play the 1999 Family Values Tour, but were kicked off by Fred Durst over his inability to sign the band Taproot. Fred Durst has since admitted that he was a "complete wanker" in relation to this "oversight". The band have yet to comment on Durst's involvement or commentary. In 2000, the group contributed their cover of the Black Sabbath song "Snowblind" to the Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black 2.

Mainstream success: Toxicity/Steal This Album! (2001 - 2003)

The group's big break arrived when their second album Toxicity debuted at #1 on the American and Canadian charts, eventually achieving multi-platinum certification. The album has since sold 6 million copies worldwide. It was still on top in America on the week of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the political environment caused by the attacks added to the controversy surrounding their hit single "Chop Suey!" causing it to be 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 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 of 2006, VH1 listed Toxicity in the #14 slot in the 40 Greatest Metal Songs.

In 2001, the band went on tour with Slipknot. In late 2001, a few unreleased tracks made their way onto the Internet. The group released a statement that the tracks were unfinished material. Soon after, the band released the final versions of the songs, which were recorded at the same time, but hadn't been used for Toxicity. The result was Steal This Album!, 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 and as a message to those who stole the songs and released them on the Internet. Dolmayan said in an interview "I don't care if fans download our songs from the internet but I don't like it when fans get our songs before the release date". The singles "Innervision" and "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" were released as radio-only promos 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.

Mezmerize/Hypnotize (2004 - 2005)

From 2004 to 2005, the group produced a double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize with the two parts released six months apart. The first album, Mezmerize, was released on May 17 2005, to favorable reviews by critics. It debuted at #1 in the United States, Canada, Australia and all around the world, making it System of a Down's second #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 war, 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 #1 in the US, making System of a Down, along with the Beatles, and rappers 2Pac and DMX, the only artists to ever have two studio albums debut at #1 brad neace is there biggest fan in the same year. 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" as their third. airplay only, single.

In February of 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. The band headlined Ozzfest 2006 in cities where tour founder Ozzy Osbourne opted not to appear or wasn't playing on the main stage.


Music style and influences

System of a Down’s main influence is mostly from early alternative rock bands, as well as from heavy metal, punk rock, jazz fusion, Armenian folk music (Harout, Paul, Armik), classic rock, blues, industrial genres, and Middle Eastern music. The band has used a wide range of instruments, including electric mandolins, sitars, 12-string guitars and Middle Eastern ouds. They used drop C tuning exclusively in their first three albums. The latter two System albums used Drop Db tuning, except in the songs Question! and Dreaming in which they reverted to drop C tuning (With Question! having an acoustic guitar tuned in standard).

Daron has stated on several accounts that his songwriting is inspired heavily by The Beatles. Shavo's and Daron's first influences were Kiss. Shavo has also stated in a video interview at Big Day Out that he would not like to do any collaborations, because they don't want to use other people to make themselves famous. Then he quickly changed his answer and said "Mike Patton" and that they would love to do anything with him.

Genre dispute

There is some contention over the band's genre. They have been labeled as nu metal, which may be attributed to their first album being released during the nu metal boom of the mid-to-late 90s, though they had been making music and touring before most nu metal. Columbia Records, which distributes producer Rick Rubin's American Recordings, had a part in casting the band as nu metal. Brad Tolinski of Guitar World said, "These guys were grouped in with bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit, and they were able to sneak in under the wire because of those affiliations, even though they didn't sound like them... And when nu-metal got cleared away, System of a Down was still standing... They were clearly able to create their own identity and unique sound."

Guitarist Daron Malakian has said in a Guitar World interview that he is glad System of a Down has not slipped into the nu metal genre. During a 2005 concert, he announced, "They used to call us nü-metal, now they call us prog rock. Whatever's popular at the moment, I think that's what they'll call us."

In a 2005 interview with the Houston Press, Malakian said, “Lately, we've been doing interviews, and people have been like, 'You guys are really leading the way for the new prog movement,' and I'm like, 'What?' ...It's just kind of aggravating that people always have to have something to compare us to, or bunch us up with. I'm not saying we're the most original band in the world, but I don't really feel that we fall into a heavy-metal category or a pure rock category. There's a lot of stuff mixed up into one.”

Against comparisons to Rage Against the Machine, Tankian said, "Yeah, we have some political songs, but we have more that are about love and life and sex and pogo-stick orgies and all that."

Malakian said, "We don't belong to any one scene." System has also been described as a mixture of aggro punk, classic metal, Frank Zappa, goth, and Armenian music.

Band members

Current members

Former members

Studio, guest, and extra members

Discography

Main article: System of a Down discography

Audio samples

References

  1. ^ http://music.aol.com/artist/system-of-a-down/302874/main
  2. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:hifuxqqjldfe
  3. ^ http://www.purevolume.com/systemofadown
  4. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8957307/system_of_a_down
  5. "System of a Down Biography". Rockdetector. 2007-02-15. Retrieved 2007-04-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. Will Hodgkinson (2003-02-21). "Songs in the key of C". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 2007-05-06. Chisholm moves on to some of the nu metal she listens to at the gym, including System of a Down and Linkin Park. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. Maria Armoudian (2003-02-06). "Rock's axis of activism". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-05-06. Serj Tankian, lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling nu metal band System of a Down... {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. "American Recordings/Columbia Records Release Special Limited Edition of System of a Down's #1 Album 'Toxicity'". PR Newswire. 2002-04-23. Retrieved 2007-05-06. Toxicity... was named Album Of The Year 2001 by Spin magazine who raved Toxicity is the most ambitious record yet to emerge from the nu metal scene. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Adrien Begrand (2002-07-25). "Various Artists: The Pledge of Allegiance Tour". PopMatters. Retrieved 2007-05-06. ...combining aggro punk with old school metal and the off-kilter sounds of Frank Zappa... I'm not someone who's completely unfamiliar with nu-metal. When it's done well, it's extremely powerful, but few know how to pull it off properly... especially System of a Down's two albums. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. The History Of: System Of A Down
  11. http://soadamizer.tripod.com/id10.html
  12. http://www.rockcitynews.com/awards/ballot97.html
  13. ^ J. Freedom du Lac (2005-11-20). "System of a Down, Getting All Worked Up". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-05-06. The operators of the industry propaganda machine at Columbia... cast the band as a nu-metal outfit. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. Daron Malakian at the Ogden Theatre in Denver, Colorado on 2005-04-27, after the song "Deer Dance".
  15. Steve Morse of The Boston Globe (2005-08-31). "System of a Down lashes out at Hollywood, war, and hypocrisy". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved 2007-05-06. The group was once labeled "nu metal" and lumped in with such acts as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Rage Against the Machine. But Rage is gone, Korn and Bizkit have faded, and that leaves System, which has never felt comfortable with glib stereotypes. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. George Varga (2005-08-04). "'We speak of real life'". Sign On San Diego. Retrieved 2007-05-06. ...combine nu-metal ferocity and prog-rock complexity with elements of punk, goth, Armenian music and more... {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

System of a Down
Studio albums
Singles
Tours
Related

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