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Within the past year System of A Down have become
metal superstars. Their sophomore album, "Toxicity"
has now sold in excess of 4-million copies worldwide
and they have inspired hundreds of bands with their
original “schizophrenic” sound. The Los Angeles based
rockers have gone from underground heroes to major players
in the music industry by reshaping and reforming heavy
metal as we know. By adding elements and textures ranging
from heavy political topics, (such as the prison system
and government in general), to spiritual sentiments
to silly outrageous subjects like psycho groupies SOAD
have become Icon’s of our times. The schizophrenic nature
of the band, going from hot to cold to hot again is
what gives their music a twisted beauty and makes it
so attractive. "We're just System Of A Down, man." says
Bassist Daron Malakian in a modest tone, "We just do
what we do and that's that. The main thing that we do
is we don't really watch what everybody else is doing
and we try to constantly influence ourselves and stay
dedicated to what we do."
While SOAD are currently in the process of working on
their next album, (due out in a year or two according
to Malakian) they will be releasing a 16-track compilation
album of unreleased music called "Steal This Album".
System Of A Down, which is guitarist/vocals Daron Malakian,
Lead vocals Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and
drummer John Dolmayan recorded over 30 tracks during
the "Toxicity" sessions and left behind plenty of great
tracks many of which will be featured on the album.
Although they had always planned to release the unused
tunes it was Internet pirating that sped the process.
So how did the tracks leak onto the Internet in the
first place? "Well, if I knew that someone would have
had their ass kicked a long time ago," says Malakian
with a sinister giggle. "Oh man, I have no idea how,
you never know. It could have been some intern, some
engineer or something, you never know who does it. Basically,
someone was there when we were tracking the songs, like
just us four in a room together and they must have taken
that and put it on the Internet. I mean, all the vocals
are rough, none of my vocals are in their cus' I hadn't
put them in yet. There's only one guitar track and it
just doesn't sound the way it should sound. The point
is that I heard what the kids were hearing and it was
such a bad version of the songs. When I heard that I
just thought it sucks and people were already hearing
the songs so we couldn't release them later on cus'
they wouldn't be new later on, so we might as well put
them out right now the way we want them to be heard."
By deciding to take matters into their own hands, mix
the tunes properly and release them officially through
their label, they managed to beat the music pirates
at their own game and ultimately beat the bootleg 'system.'
"Everyone of these songs were good enough to make it
on another System album, so we just put them all together
and made another System album out of them."
Rick Rubin and System’s guitarist Daron Malakian produced
the album appropriately titled “Steal This Album,” and
mixed in Los Angeles by Andy Wallace (who mixed the
Toxicity album). The album will includes such tracks
as "Innervision," " Fuck The System," "Pictures, " "Boom,"
"A.D.D." and an acoustic song called "Roulette," which
Malakian began writing seven or eight years ago which
features only Tankian (vocals) and Malakian (vocals,
guitar). In addition, various "interludes," intros that
have been used on the band's tours and other musical
tidbits will be woven throughout the CD. "I guarantee
that (our fans) will not be disappointed with this album,"
gushes Malakian, "I am so damn proud of it. You know,
at first I was a bit weary about putting it out because
I hate the whole title of 'B-Sides' or 'didn't make
the cut' because that's not how I looked at it. But,
now that I finished the sequence and everything's done
with the record I think that its something that is just
as good if not better than anything else we put out.
It's definitely something to look forward to."
The case itself looks like a bootleg. "The Steal This
Album" packaging will resemble a homemade CD as it will
be housed in a clear jewel case with no cover art, no
booklet, and no standard J-card. The title will be scrawled
across the face of the CD. Inserting the CD into a computer
and logging onto a special Internet site can access
all complete credits and other information. "Its pretty
much the way you'd get it as if some bootlegger sold
it to you," says Malakian, "only the guy would have
charged you about $20.00 for it, if not more. This is
a better sounding version of it that's coming from us
and you can count on the quality."
"Steal This Album," due on Nov. 26 through American/Columbia
Records, will definitely satisfy SOAD fans and ease
the anticipation for the next album. "The music will
be all over the place just like "Toxicity." We will
go from something that will make you laugh to something
that will make you think to something that will make
you cry. It's very schizophrenic.."
Don Sill
Don Sill for Crud Magazine© 2002
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January 2001
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