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Ozzfest and Its Quest for Fresh Blood |
Posted by flohmagawd! on Tuesday, August 01, 2006 - 04:24 PM
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System of a Down can be maddeningly indirect: you think you have a pretty good bead on a song, and then some splinter of humor or sarcasm or poetry, or a new beat suddenly confuses things. So it is with its music. This band’s guitarist and songwriter, Daron Malakian, slices up song form into episodic, twitchy riffs; its singer, Serj Tankian, wails in Eastern European scales and races through urgent, hallucinatory lyrics about war and liars and genocide, a sidewalk ranter high on his own theories.
But then comes a wickedly catchy, mall-rat sing-along metal chorus, which could be about oil or political propaganda or — as in “Hypnotize” — about sitting in a car, waiting for a girlfriend. (Does it have to do with our dependence on oil? Who knows?) The effect is something like if Frank Zappa had operated closer to the mainstream: distanced from hard rock but fully operational within it, the band uses a sharp critical intelligence but remains extremely cagey about where it’s using that critical mind and where it isn’t. The constant is Mr. Tankian’s voice, a manic, parodic twitter. On Saturday night at Ozzfest, Ozzy Osbourne’s tour of hard-rock and metal bands, System of a Down put all this panic and all this music — the constant introduction of melodic strains, the constant discomfort-attack — into a deeply impressive, tightly run 90-minute show.
The band’s headlining set at Randalls Island was almost comedically better than anything that came before it. It was by far the weirdest band of the day and by just as far the best. One got the sense of a separate show: that Ozzfest proper was a long, hard slog, one short burst of mediocrity after another, ending at 9:15, followed by an accomplished, intricate gig as a reward.
Mr. Osbourne comes with his own band on this year’s tour — as opposed to with a reunited Black Sabbath, which has headlined on some previous tours — and is not playing every date. At Randalls Island he chose to headline the second stage, appearing in the late afternoon instead of closing the night. It was a good idea. Past Ozzfests have sometimes lost their momentum with Mr. Osbourne’s shows, which are increasingly wooden and goofy. Kept to 50 minutes, Mr. Osbourne’s rhythmless hand-clapping, his obligatory water-gun spraying and the endless soloing by his guitarist Zakk Wylde, larded up with pinch harmonics and divebombing effects, were all manageable.
That the New York-area show was held at the park on Randalls Island and not at its regular spot in the past, the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., also meant a better vibe and a greater sense of freedom: it was just a large grassy field, not a shed theater with overpatrolled corridors, entrances and exits. Not much security was needed anyway: it was a docile crowd. (With a lot of moms and dads around and beer at $7 a pop, you can’t expect much trouble.)
But the lineup wasn’t one of its best. This year the festival sought a younger audience and got it: instead of the creaky limbs of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Slayer and whatever band Philip Anselmo is currently singing with, the festival featured many more young, fresh bands who are fusing stern metal conventions with more vulnerable bits of emo and hardcore. With groups like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold — two crowd favorites this year — single songs could offer heavily outdated, operatically shredding guitar solos, overcooked emotional singing on choruses and barked hardcore ranting in verses. It’s an almost meaningless pile of borrowed gestures: these groups desperately need to figure out what they are.
DragonForce, a ridiculous band from England, has figured it out: it is basically Journey at double speed, with big, hopeful-sounding choruses. (It’s metal for 8-year-olds.) So have the guys in Hatebreed, with its mega-competent hardcore, all hardness and little charm.
Disturbed has an armored, protected sound as well; slower, more forthrightly pop, it runs on the ready-for-Broadway voice and brooding presence of its beefy singer, David Draiman, who paced the stage haughtily as if inspecting a barracks. Mr. Draiman delivered a few political thoughts between songs: bring the troops home, pray for the future of the Earth. (And, he added ponderously, for the future of hard rock.) For this he could pat himself on the back, because outside of some System of a Down lyrics, it was a politics-free day.
By Ben Ratliff
Published: July 31, 2006 - New York Times
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Comments
longjumper751
01.08.06, 18:26
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Whoaaaa first comment Thanks for posting this Hannah, ahhhsome
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mbeene_2006
01.08.06, 18:40
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very cool artcle
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spidersintoxicity
01.08.06, 20:07
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im going to ozzfest on sunday, what time does SOAD play?
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flohmagawd!
01.08.06, 20:58
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^^SOAD comes on usually around 9:15/9:20. If you wanna be sure, check this site a day or 2 before you're going. http://ozzfest.com/tourdates.html?sid=2031865930. Then click on 'Set Times' and scroll down. It should be there.
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lusfuc
01.08.06, 21:38
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Very nice. Thanks.
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spidersintoxicity
01.08.06, 22:01
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thanks floh
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S.O.A.D.orV.O.A.D.
02.08.06, 00:06
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cool, thanks!
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mom45
02.08.06, 02:06
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I never get tired of journalists trying to describe System's sound in words.....they can try and try....can't they? But no words are fully adequate, you know?
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twstedlgc
02.08.06, 23:39
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^Amen.
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~Washu
03.08.06, 22:59
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Bwahaha! I've heard many times from interviews with Daron that the meaning behind, "I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl." was just because it sounded like it fit and Daron really was sitting in his car waiting for his girlfriend. *gets mobbed by 10-year-old Daron fangirls who claim to be his girlfriend* Why do people assume every single bit is about the world's problem with the world? System of a Down is NOT an entirely political band. When they do have a song with politics in it, at least they're smart about it and aren't totally, "AMERICA SUXXXXX!!!11!!! BUSH IS TEH WORTS PERSUN IN THHE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!1"
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