"We're an Armenian band", say system of a Down, with their largely successful sophomore album, TOXICITY. The second album of a band is extremely important, and pivotal towards their future career. Many a band have come out with a huge debut, and are then labeled one-hit wonders as their following albums become increasingly more and more sucky, because it's hard to top a successful first album. But not System of a Down. While it is hard to judge Toxicity with System's self-titled debut, it is safe to say that they both kick ass. I wonder about their forthcoming album though, set for release next year. The song Chop Suey! is what really jettisoned SOAD into mainstream, and the success of the title track Toxicity soon followed. But how will they top this one? Only time will tell, but chances are it will be widely accepted, and most likely watered down a little. But now for the actual review:
Toxicity begins with a loud, single power chord that will burst your ears if you're not ready for it. After a few seconds of silence, a few chunky chords in a repeating, hypnotic sequence begin. More silence, and you are now in the middle of the first track, Prison Song. Like several other SOAD songs, the topic of this song is lack of order in Government and society, this particular one, prison obviously. You go through the three minutes, and for the next five songs, each track is similar sounding and leads into the next. Now, don't go complaining to me about me saying they sound the same, even the biggest fan has to admit it. I'm not complaining, I'm just stating.
The guitar and bass are definitely not as complicated in Toxicity as they are in SOAD, and Daron and Shavo are honestly not the best players to pick up the instrument, but both albums have feelings to them which are rare to most of the nu-metelers. The impressive drums of John Dolmayan and the ethnic style of vocals from Serj blend together with the guit and bass making one large wall of sound that works perfectly together. And the lyrics of the album are varied, to quote Serj, "You don't wake up in the morning and think about the government all day, or hate, or love, so why keep lyrics to one constant theme?" This shows in the track Bounce, which is about a pogo stick. Riot police to suicide to pogo sticks? What are these crazy armenians thinking?
Toxicity is a brilliant album and deserves all five of these stars I have bestowed upon them. Revolving clap awards for you, and you, and you, and you...
Prison Song
Starting off the album with a snap crackle and pop, Prison Song gets right to the bitching and enlightens the listeners with general facts about prisons and whatnot. There is a strange change in atmosphere as you go from the headbanging intro/chorus to the verse, with Serj's bouncy vocals, and Daron's high pitched "I buy my crack, I smack my bitch, right here in Hollywood". Using this style gives a sense of mocking, and less of a complaint. Ahh, listen to the pretty chords of the interlude, where Serj and Daron gently sing "For baby you and me". The intro has very tricky timing. If you can get it right, I salute you.
Needles
Pull the tapeworm out of me... This song begins with a quick set of pull-offs on the guitar while the final ringing chord of prison song fades away. I'm not exact on the translation of this song, but I'm pretty sure that this isn't a literal tapeworm we're talking about here. It has something to do with feeding off someone, similar to Ticks and Leeches by Tool. "i cannot disuise all the evil traits and the filling of the crates when you do come out, and you slither up to me in your pimpin majesty. But I cannot grow till you eat the last of me, oh when will I be free? And you, a parasite, just find another host, just another stool to post". How am I supposed to understand what that means?
Deer Dance
Awesome song, with a kick-ass heavy intro, unique verse, and cool interlude. "batallions of riot police, rubber bullet kisses, baton courtesy, service with a smile." Seems to be about the bad state that America is in, and the unfair and uncaring government forces. Ah, america the beautiful. But what is serj doing, coming over to america and complaining? And why aren't others doing the same thing?
Jet Pilot
This song isn't really up to System's standards, with a mediocre and nondescript intro. But things are better in the verse, when things slow down and make sense, with a little guitar part leading into each verse, and serving as the solo near the end. This song is only about 2 minutes, and stops abruptly. A quarter of a second later, we begin...
X
"X? Why, what does X mean?" you ask. This song is confusing, because in one verse Serj yells "We don't need to multiply" a few times, which would call in the X, canceling out the human race. But a verse later, Serj yells "We don't need to nullify" a few times, entirely canceling out what he just said. I honestly don't know where he's going with this one. This is a non-stop fast-paced headbanger song, except for the intermission, with a few low notes circling around some high notes in a seemingly odd time signature.
Chop Suey!
Yeah yeah yeah, we ALL know the lyrics to this one. Or at least the "Wake Up!" part. Yep, this is the one that made System of a Down known to more than just the metalheads, so now people that listen to backstreet boys and NSync can sing "Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little makeup!" It's sad really. And it's for this reason that I didn't get into System as soon as I could have. You lose your touch as soon as you become too big, only the Beatles have proven that one wrong. The lyrics of this song deal with suicide, but some of the stuff doesn't really make sense. Don't get me wrong, this is a good song, but I just want to say, "FUCK THE RADIO, FUCK MTV, FUCK ALL OF YOU POSEURS WHO DISAGREE WITH ME!" No, seriously.
Bounce
What a dumb song, huh? According to Daron, there is no message behind this song, no perverted side meanings, it's just about a pogo stick. But I doubt it, for some small, insignificant reason. This is a fast, guitar slamming ditty, with yelling and stuttering aplenty. The verse is still fast, but calmed down, and features more of Daron's high pitched backing vocals. "I want everybody who's crazy to jump up... and... DOWN!"
Forest
This song is a change of pace from most of System's other songs, I don't know why, but there is a different feeling to it. The vocal melody for the chorus is awesome, they did a good job coming up with that one. The interlude is somewhat disorientating, with oddly placed time changes and unusual rhythms. This is the longest song on the cd (besides Aerials, but that song has a hidden track at the end of it), at 4 minutes, exactly. As you start the song, the loud guitar makes you think that this one is going to be a heavy one. But besides these occasional heavy riffs, this is actually a fairly mellow song, for system, that is.
ATWA
The quiet little ditty is about Charles Manson's environmental movement. ATWA stands for Air, Trees, Water, and Animals, And System of a Down is in favor of it. They have been criticized by even fans for their point of view on this, but they stand by it. This song is from Charles' point of view, saying things like "I've got nothing to gain or lose" and "Silent my voice, I've got no choice", so it is, in a way, sympathetic. Similar to Nirvana's Polly, which is from the point of view of a blowtorch rapist, saying things like "She's just as bored as me", which is an odd way to be thinking about a hardened, vicious criminal. Both songs show different sides to objects most people don't know a whole lot about.
Science
After studying the behavior of various System fans, I have noticed that this song isn't exactly a fan favorite. A lot of people tend to skip over it, most don't know the lyrics, and it doesn't stand out against the other songs. Looking at the setup and style of Science, it is very much like War?, from the debut cd. They both have a common feel to them, and the sequencing and styles of the parts are similar. They both have a quiet and somewhat fast interlude, which is probably the best part of both songs. It is a very good song though, it is just an aquired taste, and those of you who skip this song over, take a second listen.
Shimmy
I still don't know what shimmying is, and I may never know. This song features the funniest vocals I've heard from serj. Listen specifically to "I wanna shimmy-shimmy-shimmy to the break of dawn, yeah." That last yeah is so fucking weird. I don't understand the lyrics, I haven't found any theme to tie them all into. But this is a damned awesome song, and the lyrics seem to just be there so he can do something with his voice. The guitar styling for the verse sounds oddly middle-eastern, almost like a sitar, but actually just a guitar with distortion. It finishes of with a loud "DON'T BE LATE FOR SCHOOL AGAIN BOY! DON'T BE LATE FOR SCHOOL AGAIN GIRL! DON'T BE LATE FOR SCHOOL AGAIN BOY! DON'T BE LATE FOR SCHOOL AGAIN GIRL!", and stops quickly, jumping into the title track...
Toxicity
The second hit off of the album, with its own single in a blue colored booklet. It has the normal Toxicity album, plus the dvd single with the video for Toxicity and three other live songs. It is worth it, even if you already have the album. But the song itself is awesome, with a mellow, ethnic style verse, and a pounding, mind-jarring chorus. The outro is fast and loud, and after a wall of sound builds up to the max, Serj sings, Indian style, "When I became the sun, I shone life into the man's hearts, when I became the sun, I shone life into the man's heart!" It is an odd experience for the ears, and thanks to the lyrics of Serj, and the music of Daron and Shavo, System of a Down's second cd found a title and an awesome song.
Psycho
Everybody likes Psycho, and no one knows why. It has a cool verse, very fast and heavy. "Psycho groupie cocaine crazy makes you high", over and over. The interludes are awesome, looking mainly at the guitar. I think there might be sitar involved, or it might all be sitar. The outro features one of Daron's few actual guitar solos, and it is sort of slow with orchestration behind it, and it leads strait into...
Aerials
I believe that this will be the next hit off of Toxicity. Several people on EBay claim to have the new Aerials single, but I don't know how well this song will do as a hit. On one hand, people that are oldschool System fans will hate them for putting such a mellow song on the radio, and REALLY selling out. But along with that, many poseurs and such will hear the song and say "Hey, a mellow song! Let's be poseurs!", and BAM, System of a Down follows the path of Incubus. It's such a sad thing to see happen, but it happens all the time. This is the slowest song on the cd, with a very catchy melody though. It has a similar song structure to Spiders from the debut album. After the song is over, you wait about 5-10 seconds, and Arto begins.
Arto
An entirely instrumental piece. It doesn't have any normal rock instruments, and it sounds like Native American chants. I could be wrong about that, but it doesn't sound very middle eastern. Though I don't know the connection between System of a Down and Native Americans. I don't know any story behind this, or its background, or anything important, so that concludes this review.
This has been Kal Something-Or-Other, writing too much and getting a headache.