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would not be an understatement if someone called the year of 2005 the System of
a Down Year for it really was the year that marked their triumphant comeback.
The year of 2005 was indeed an excellent and prosperous year for System of a
Down and their fans. With the release of their double part album, ‘Mezmerize’
and ‘Hypnotize’, after a break of 3 years, the band has returned!
Somewhere near the end of 2004, the fans were thrilled to hear that they will be
treated with not only one but two albums the following year. Talk about a SOAD
treat! The albums were to be released 6 months apart.
The band explained that the decision upon the release of 2 albums was a
necessity due to the fact that System of a Down found it hard to single out “the
best 14” for one album and therefore decided to make it a double album.
"We're a live band, so what we do in terms of recording is we work out the songs
for a long time and let them live with us, and if we want to change something
over time, if we are uncomfortable about something or think something could be
better, we would know it before anyone else steps in," Serj Tankian explained.
"When we go into recording, we don't ever walk in and say, 'Oh, let's write a
new song in the studio. It's always like we've got all these songs that we've
been living with as a band for at least six months to a year. And that makes it
so much easier recording it. If everyone is much more fluent, more comfortable,
there is no hesitation. Sure, we change things here and there in the studio, but
a lot of it is well-digested."
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Daron gave up his Ibanez and replaced it with
Gibson instead. |
On January the 13th, 2005 System of a Down decided to give another treat to
their fans by giving them a sneak-a-peak of their forthcoming album. ‘Cigaro’
leaked! Though the leaked track became a hit, System of a Down decided not to
make it an official single. They chose ‘B.Y.O.B.’ instead.
In February, the new album date was confirmed. ‘Mezmerize’ was to arrive in
stores on April 24th. However, the date was later pushed back to May 17th.
Meanwhile, System of a Down have played on Australia and New Zeland’s Big Day
Out festival and have announced new European tour dates, of 23 gigs in Portugal,
Sweden, France, Belgium and U.K., just to name a few.
Daron Malakian commented the new album. "You will hear a difference, you will
hear a growth, but you will always hear us", Malakian said. "All my favorite
bands tend to have those kinds of careers. They kind of re-create themselves,
but they re-create themselves, they don't re-create into somebody else." Were
System of a Down to re-create them selves?
The fans were yet to find out!
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B.Y.O.B was their first video since 2002 |
In the second week of March, bring your own beer? Heck no, SOAD says “Bring
Your Own Bombs” or “B.Y.O.B”, a song that questions the reasons and the business
behind the war. “B.Y.O.B” makes its way to the radio stations, and a month later
also to the TV stations.
"It's such a heavy and aggressive song, and we didn't want a political song as
our first single," Serj Tankian said. "But it's so powerful and so different
from everything else on the radio; we thought we could get away with it, even
though we don't want to be pigeonholed as a political band."
On April 24th in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheatre, System of a Down
headlined "Souls 2005", a benefit concert presented by KROQ-FM, the radio
station from L.A. This was the third "Souls" benefit concert that System of a
Down organized and headlined in order to eradicate genocides across the globe,
among which, of course, is the genocide committed against the Armenian people by
the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
During the genocide, 1.5 million of Armenians were annihilated and hundreds
of thousands deported. April 24th was chosen as the commemoration date of the
90th year anniversary of the Genocide.
"Because so much of my family history was lost in the Armenian Genocide," said
Daron Malakian, "my grandfather, who was very young at the time, doesn't know
his true age. How many people can say they don't know how old they are?"
"It's important for people to be aware of the Armenian Genocide.”
explained Tankian, "and that those actions continue to be covered up by the
Turkish government, the U.S. State Department, Turkey's allies in the defense
and oil industries, and by our present U.S. Administration. Had the Armenian
Genocide been acknowledged as a Crime Against Humanity as it was, Hitler might
not have thought he could get away with the Holocaust. History does and
will repeat itself, unless we stop that cycle."
By this time, the official System of a Down website released the artwork,
designed and created by Daron’s father, Vartan Malakian, for “Mezmerize” and
“Hypnotize”.
“My dad's my biggest inspiration," Daron explained. "We saw some work from some
other people first and I just was like, 'Why am I going outside when it's right
there, it's always been right there in front of my eyes?”
“The man really worked hard and he is a genius”, added Shavo Odadjian.
Along with the artwork, “Mezmerize/Hypnotize” are to feature a packaging that
will allow the two albums to link together.
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The opening of the shows was very original. |
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System of a Down announced their first major U.S. tour in three years on the
28th of April. So far, it is known that The Mars Volta would join SOAD as
special guests. The third (and the opening act) was unknown at the time.
Somewhere in July, it was official. The opening act is to be Bad Acid Trip, one
of the first signings to Serjical Strike. The two month tour was to take off
early August throughout North America.
"We're very excited about getting out on the road this summer," said System's
vocalist. "It's been a long time since we've done a major American tour.”
By this time, System of a Down were playing smaller venues and debuting a couple
of their brand new spanking songs from “Mezmerize”. “B.Y.O.B” had already made
it to the top 10 chart and the band was to perform live on “Saturday Night Live”
on May, the 7th. This performance, their first major live TV appearance at which
they played “B.Y.O.B”, was to be remembered by the muted F-words. All except for
one. The censors missed the last “f*** yeah!”, a spontaneous cry by Daron
Malakian towards the end of the song. This raised much controversy while John
Dolmayan commented: "It's ridiculous that people make a big deal out of it.
Incredibly ridiculous that it's newsworthy," he said. "It's just a word. We
didn't kill anybody. People should relax. If you're old enough to be up at
11:30, I'm sure that you've heard that word before and it's not going to affect
your delicate sensibilities if you hear it again. We act like these words are
never spoken. The whole country tripped out because of Janet Jackson's breast.
Who gives a fuck? How many times have you seen a breast before in your life? It
doesn't offend me."
Upon the first week after its release, “Mezmerize” was selling like crazy;
half a million copies were sold world-wide. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise to
see that by the end of May, “Mezmerize” hit the position No. 1 on the Billboard
200 Chart.
 “Mezmerize”, System of a Down’s forth album turned out to be quite something.
Featuring tracks like “Lost in Hollywood”, “Cigaro” and “Radio/Video” it became
evident that Malakian had an increased vocal time on this album.
Malakian, however, stated that only those outside of the band's inner circle
could be surprised to hear him sing more. "I've always been vocally involved
with System of a Down, not necessarily as a singer, but I've written a lot of
the melody lines and the vocal patterns. When I wrote something before, I had
Serj in my head, but this time I had both of us in my head."
"Sad Statue" and "B.Y.O.B." carry their anti-war message very bravely and
very clearly while, for example, humorous and witty "Radio/Video", "Violent
Pornography", “This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m on This Song” and “Old School
Hollywood” are completely different from what some critics could have expected.
This is System of a Down. One can never know what to expect from their music.
Questioning the society however never fails to miss System of a Down, for
example in the songs like “Lost in Hollywood” sang by Daron Malakian and also
previously mentioned “Sad Statue”. Of course, one cannot but also mention the
fairy-tale epic “Question” which was later to become System of a Down’s second
single.
“Mezmerize” was on the US Top 20 Albums Chart for 9 weeks.
When it comes to the meaning of “Mezmerize”, the band said they didn’t know it
either. Shavo Odadjian looks at System’s music as somewhat an abstract art:
"Every human being sees something different in a painting, so I want every
single person to have their own thoughts about our songs."
Daron Malakian added: "Sometimes it hits me right after songs come out, or it
hits me a year later or maybe never, as far as what these songs are about. But
it's pretty crazy: I bring in a song, and me and Serj jump lyrics off each other
and even if Serj doesn't know exactly where I'm coming from, he writes stuff
that fits perfectly without even knowing."
By the end of June, System of a Down have returned from their European tour
and were to release their second single from “Mezmerize”. “Question” was to be
co-directed by Shavo Odadjian and aired on radios world-wide from the 19th of
July.
"I wrote 'Question!' last year and I think it's one of the better songs that
I've written for the band. ", Serj Tankian said. "The subject of death is
universal — what is death? What happens afterwards? To me, it's very mystical. "
By beginning of August, “Question”, the video, is released and the band were to
begin their North American tour, the first major one in 3 years.
While many fans were eagerly anticipating the 2nd half of the double album,
System of a Down was on tour. On August the 6th, System of a Down kicked off
their North American tour in Long Beach Arena, just outside of Los Angeles,
California. The tour, with The Mars Volta as the special guest and Bad Acid Trip
as the tour’s first leg opening act, would see System of a Down in around 40
cities across the US in a period of over ten weeks.
In the meantime, there were rumors about the upcoming “Hypnotize”. It was said
that it would feature System of a Down’s first instrumental called “Hezze”.
"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.".
Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many fans, the band later decided not to
put “Hezze” on “Hypnotize” but to postpone it and release it either as a
separate single or on another album.
By this time, the band has decided to release the title track from “Hypnotize”
as their next single and have set the release date (together with the tack list)
of the album to the 22nd of November. The single was aired in the beginning of
October, and the video, directed by Shavo Odadjian, was to be premiered on the
1st of November.
In September, System of a Down have been nominated for the AMA (the
American Music Award) which were to be held in Los Angeles the same date
“Hypnotize” would hit the stores. In the beginning of October, System of a Down
have also been nominated for the MTV European Music Awards, in the category of
the “Best Alternative”, which they have won on November the 3rd. Upon the
acceptance of the award, Serj’s speech at the EMAs was something all the fans
could have expected, ingenious, inspirational and authentic: "Civilization is a
fucking failure. Lets get together and decide what we wanna do next, together
with love and peace. Thank you". System of a Down also performed “B.Y.O.B.” live
at EMAs.
 And
so came the long awaited day of November 22nd. “Hypnotize” hit the stores!
Featuring heavier metal tacks, like “Attack”, “Hypnotize” has proven to be a new
System of a Down’s heavy masterpiece. “Tentative” features an electric cello,
while “Dreaming” is highlighted by Daron Malakian’s crisp vocals. From somewhat
bizarre lyrics abound this album: by mixing words like “banana”, “Terracotta”
and “pie” in “Vicinity of Obscenity” to the ballad-like “Lonely Day” sung by
Daron Malakian, “Hypnotize” has it all. It also features “Holy Mountains”, a
very powerful song about the Armenian holy mountain of Ararat. The album’s
closing track “Soldier Side” completes “Soldier Side (Intro)”, the opening track
of “Mezmerize” making the double albums 2 parts of one whole. “Mezmerize” and
“Hypnotize” are indeed genuine soulmates.
With 320.000 sold copies, “Hypnotize” was the biggest selling album of the first
week upon its release. For the third time in their career, and second time in
2005, System of a Down made it to the top of the charts in a record time.
“Hypnotize” remained on the US Top 20 Albums Chart for a period of 4 weeks.
 Towards
the very end of December, 12 pieces of Limited Edition Hypnotize Artworks were
to be sold. Each of the pieces were hand made, framed and signed by Vartan
Malakian and also signed by the members of System of a Down.
System of a Down were indeed tireless and productive in 2005. They bestowed
their fans with 2 albums, singles, tours and live performances. But stop for a
second if you think that’s all. Remember their solo projects: Serj Tankian’s
collaboration with Buckethead, Shavo Odadjian’s collaborations with RZA, GZA and
his appearance on KCUF, the album made by ex-Amen’s bassist, John “Tumor”
Fahnestock and former Gwar singer Crazy White Sean.
Kerrang! magazine named System of a Down the 3rd best band on the planet in the
2005 Kerrang Awards. Daron Malakian on 58th spot of the Heavy Metals All Time
Top 100 Guitarists. The Rolling Stone Magazine placed System of a Down on the
20th spot of their Top 50 Records of 2005 list. “B.Y.O.B” was also nominated at
the upcoming 48th Grammy Awards in the category of the Best Hard Rock. The
Grammy Awards are set to broadcast on February the 8th 2006.
System of a Down have also appeared in numerous number of magazines, from
Kerrang! via Total Guitar to Metal Hammer, just to name a few. Surely some of
those magazines found place in the hands of many fans.
System of a Down is yet to announce their upcoming 2006 tour dates.
The year of 2005 is the year of System of a Down Celebration.
Article Written by Sonja Miller
Check SOADFans Fat 2005 Review
HERE
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