The second half of System of a Down's Mezmerize/Hypnotize will feature the band's first instrumental ... and make sure you call it that.

When bassist Shavo Odadjian referred to "Hezze" as a jam recently, singer/guitarist Daron Malakian quickly corrected him "It's not a jam," he said.
"It's a song, but it's a jam because it's without vocals, that's why I say that," Odadjian argued.

"It's an instrumental," Malakian insisted. "You know how anal I am about that word. [I hate] when people call classical music 'songs.' They are not songs. You've got to sing for a song. Music is instrumentals. It's important to me. It's not a jam either, because jams are improvised.".

As much as they say success hasn't affected them, the members of System of a Down have changed.

They can now afford some lovely o­nstage threads. They can get away with being a little lazy at times. And they don't have to fret over broken instruments, such as the bass guitar Shavo Odadjian snapped the headstock off of at the end of the quartet's lively 95-minute performance at American Airlines Center o­n Thursday.

Don't worry: Shavo's got plenty of others, though he kissed the splintered Gibson Explorer goodbye stage left. Then he shrugged and smirked. When your band's 12-week-old album, Mezmerize, has already gone platinum to the delight of fans and critics (including this o­ne) alike, you can deal with a little slack.

Long Beach, California — "Hey hey, my my/ Rock 'n' roll will never die," System of a Down's Daron Malakian sang Thursday night as he strummed a few lines from the Neil Young classic.

It was a rare tender moment that lasted no more than five seconds before the singer/guitarist tore into the band's anti-"Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)," a blistering tune from the upcoming Hypnotized titled "Kill Rock 'n' Roll."

And that's how System roll. Not killing rock, per say, but bending and twisting it to its breaking point. Defying any songwriting rules, yet spitting out just enough sensible melodies and pop-art poetry to keep an arena full of fans jumping and singing along for nearly two hours.