Metal Reviews

For the most part.

It's just a video. Daron is screaming parts Serj sings in the video. Shavo doesn't sing. The only time I have ever seen him sing is the part in Sugar that goes "WHO!" That's it! I've seen them at least 50 times live since 1997, and that's all he's ever sung before! Hehehe.

lol alright, i guess the 3rd time usually convinces me. sorry bout that guys. http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/system_of_a ... tist.jhtml theres the video, for BYOB, i might have the band members screwed up, but whatever.

They have gone bad.. They r playin MTVmusic.. Their older albums were ok. But their latest is pure shit..

I second the greatness of Evergrey, their albums are must haves for your collection if you like good power metal.

Which I don't. 8)


On-topic, the new SOAD is growing on me the more I hear the songs. I think there's subliminal messages in it or something.

At first I liked all the songs now I love 3 or 4 and generally skip the rest

Just saw the video for 'Question', it's pretty good, but they look more like gyppoes every time I see them. If the album was as good as this song, I wouldn't hesitate getting it.

The video is really cool. Serj, the singer, wrote "Question!" so it's a little different from the rest of the album. There's less of Daron singing in the lead role (at least in the mix), you know? Give the album a listen, it's pretty fucking sweet.

I still have to get 'Steal This Album!' Maybe I should get Mezmerize first, so it doesn't feel too bad in comparison. The tracks on Mezmerize are definately an acquired taste for me, being used to the earlier stuff.

I would get Mezmerize first because IMO atleast, Steal this Album is better, but Mezmerize is still good, its just that you wouldn't feel like going down in quality if you get Mezmerize first.

Each album so far has sort of had it's own style. Toxicity has more in common with the self-titled and Steal This Album! has more in common with Mezmerize.

One thing you have to respect about this band is their ability to add new elements to their music and still stay original, you may not like them but you should respect that. For instance, every song on Steal This Album! once sounded like the songs from Toxicity in style except for "Mr. Jack" (once entitled "P.I.G.") and "36," which are songs from 1995 when they first started. Anyway, all the Steal This Album! tracks leaked onto the net in rough demo form.

The band wasn't happy with that, so they went back into the studio and re-worked a bunch of them and most sound nothing like the demos. "Nuguns" is a completely different song lyrically and melody-wise than the original demo, "Defied You." "Thetawaves" has a completely new chorus. There are many other differences, too, most notably Daron's vocals. I commend the band for not just releasing the songs as they were, but actually going in again and trying to give the fans something different because if those songs never leaked, Steal This Album! would never have been released.

So the band does try and change, Mezmerize is only one album, it's the hardest one to get into, but it's damn good if you can dig on it.

Interesting that you would write it is the hardest to get into. Perhaps for metalheads, or whatever you like to call yourself, but for the mainstream audience I would say it's the easiest since it's so catchy, and has obvious pop-influences.

Just watched the video for 'Hypnotize', and I must say I like the song better now. The bassist's gurning gets extremely annoying though, despite his godly beard.

Roll on the new album! (despite not having Mezmerize yet!)

I don't like to call myself anything. I'm a music fan. Plain and simple. A stupid label such as "metalhead" doesn't define me. It always amazes me how many sarcastic comments I get because I don't like just one style of music, or styles relatively close in sound. Poo-poo to you, I say.

As for the album, I do not think it's so easy to get into mainly because Daron's voice is not as appealing as Serj's. I would say that Toxicity is by far their most accessible disc so far.


What's "gurning" mean? I wasn't impressed with "Hypnotize" upon first listen, I'm still not much impressed, but the song definitely grows on you. Daron's vocals sound a lot stronger on this song, the deeper tone is definitely a better one. Good song, not great, though.

For those interested, Serj recently collaborated with Buckethead. Here is the video for "We Are One." It's very much like a SOAD song, with some Buckethead weirdness in the middle. Good song, though.

http://music.yahoo.com/ar-290606-videos--Buckethead

Gah, my english always makes me look like a bad person :(
I'll like to clarify a little. For people who mostly like metal; I see why mezmerize can be less apealing and harder to get into - as it was for me.

For people who listen mostly to what's on the radion, watch MTV and like Pop music; then I consider this album to be a lot easier to get into.

Toxicity quickly became my favoritue S.O.A.D. album, because I like metal above all other music genres.

I am neither of those people.


Which is funny because commercially it's been their most successful.

Here's some clips from Hypnotize. Sounds like it's going to be an excellent album. "Holy Mountains" does not sound like I expected it to, different from the live version, and "Vicinity Of Obscenity" sounds like it's going to be awesome! Is that 70's R&B thrown in there? So weird.

Some good heavy songs, too.

HYPNOTIZE CLIPS (the clips—in a zip file—are of somewhat low quality)

@ Eyesore:

Gurning = pulling silly faces.

This man be gurning:

So be this man:

Ah...OK. That word is not in our dictionary. Hehehe.