The Kids Like 'Em

08/13/2001 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
David John Farinella

System Of A Down is stalking the backstage patio at the Sacramento Valley Amphitheatre. Twenty minutes from launching an aural assault on a waiting audience, the band is raring to go. So are the fans, who are already circling and stretching for the moshpit. By the time System finishes dropping the serious "Science," the whimsical "Bounce," and the scorching "Needles" from the new release, the crowd is frothing. The show-closer, "Sugar" from SOAD's 1998 debut, is barely enough to satiate the audience. Yet, System has a plane to catch to Los Angeles. They'll be back.

A week earlier, in a restaurant in the Los Angeles hills, singer Serj Tankian is looking over the 15 songs found on Toxicity. He's trying hard to ferret out his favorite. "Hate 'em all," he admits with a laugh. The band had written and recorded over 30 before trimming down the collection for this release. So, the other 15 were the good ones? Tankian laughs and then says, "Wait for the next album. That's what you should always say, by the way. Wait 'til the next album. I like 'em all. You can't pick one, because they are all different songs. How could you compare 'Bounce' with 'Aerials'? One is a completely serious song, one is a completely humorous song. One is completely moving, the other is completely flowing. Everything is good for what it is."

Sitting across the table, bassist Shavo Odadjian offers, "I love 'Shimmy.' 'Needles,' I love." Then he pauses to think over the album. "You can't pick one, but I'm picking right now what I like. I go through phases where I listen to specific songs over and over again. So, I went through a phase of 'Chop Suey' and 'ATWA.' Now I'm in this thing where I want to break walls, so I'm into 'Science,' 'Needles,' 'X,' and "'Bounce.'"

Drummer John Dolmayan, who phoned the day before, can't pick a favorite. "I don't know man, it's like which kid do you favor? I really enjoy all the music. I listen to it more as a whole than as a song, because after each song comes on I'll think, 'I love this song.' Then the next one comes on I'll think, 'I love this song.' They're all awesome, they really are. Forget modesty--this album is badass."

Toxicity marks the evolution of System from a thrash-hardcore-metal band to a more well-rounded rock outfit. Part of that change came thanks to each of the band members contributing songs, part came from the two years they spent on the road, and part came from their experience the first time around. "We knew how to record," says Odadjian. "We knew we had to do more this time to make it thicker, and that's why the album sounds more three-dimensional. It's more everywhere instead of just the basics and one-dimensional."

Above and beyond music, System has a bit of a reputation for informing an audience while entertaining. "Prison" on this album is one example. The band's headlining performance at Souls--A Benefit For Recognition Of The Armenian Genocide To Stop Crimes Against Humanity is another. It's all part of exposing SOAD's listeners to something greater. "It's like the other news," Odadjian reports. "The media revolves around what's happening with our nation only. It's not really concerned about the world and how the world reacts to other nations; it's all about how America reacts to other nations and how people react to America. Serj talks about what's happening in East Timor, Indonesia, he talks about a lot of things that the media doesn't have here. The music is pretty OG. If I wasn't in this band and I heard this band, I would be a fan. I don't know how big of a fan I'd be, but I'd think, 'Yeah.'"

Tankian leans back and says with a smile, "'Hey, the kids like him.' That's my favorite term. That's what Colombia is saying to themselves right now, 'The kids like it. We don't know what this is, but the kids like it.'" And how.