BEST OF SYSTEM OF A DOWN
Guitar Signature Licks

Explore the trademark riffs and licks of the dissident modern metal band! This cool book/CD pack provides a detailed analysis of a dozen songs, complete with full demos on CD! Songs include: Aerials · Boom! · Bounce · Chic 'N' Stew · Chop Suey! · Innervision · Jet Pilot · Psycho · Spiders · Sugar · Toxicity · War?

System of a Down

Serj Tankian Vocals
Shavo Odadjian Bass
Daron Malakian Guitar
John Dolmayan Drums

System of a Down is often referred to as an Armenian band, since three of its four members claim Armenian heritage - two of them, Serj and John, were born in Lebanon, and Shavo in Armenia itself. (Armenia is a small former Soviet Republic just east of Turkey and north of Iran.) They are indeed accutely attuned to their ethnic heritage, and in fact make reference to it both in musical phrases that pop up in their songs, in lyrics - such as the song "P.L.U.C.K." from the first album, which refers to the Armenian genocide of 1915 - and in their politics, as in the petition to recognize the genocide, which visitors to their website are encouraged to sign.

However it would be a mistake to classify them as an "Armenian" band. They're thoroughly American, having grown up in L.A., where the band was formed and is based. Serj and Daron met while in other bands that shared the same rehearsal studios, and in about 1993 they linked up to form a band called Soil, which Shavo later joined. They later renamed it System of a Down (after a poem written by Malakian), recruiting Dolmayan for drums and then creating some demo tapes. These demos created a cult following among metal enthusiasts not just in L.A. and the States but overseas as well, and this led to them being disovered and signed in 1997 by producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers) for his fledgling American Records. With the release of their self-title debut album, success came in 1998 following a support role for Slayer's tour and then a spot on that year's Ozzfest.

Coming out of the L.A. scene that also spawned Korn, Coal Chamber, Deftones, Fear Factory and Snot - alternately referred to as aggro-metal or nu-metal - SOAD's sound is a heavy, down-tuned/open-tuned metal assault that throws in unexpected twists of dynamics and numerous outside musical influences. Some songs deal with political or social themes such as prisons, education, science, and war, but as with the Armenian thing, it would be doing them a disservice to pigeonhole SOAD as a "political" band, since their subject matter is all over the map - and indeed, is sometimes so abstract as to be anyone's guess. Their sophomore release, Toxicity, debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 in the summer of 2001 and continues to burn up the charts with subsequent singles releases.