Shock To The System

07/13/1998 3:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Jennifer Clay

"It's just a coincidence that we're all Armenians and formed a band," begins System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian. "I never thought that I would end up in a band that's all Armenians."

"I think that's one of the reasons that we get along so well," adds SOAD drummer John Dolmayan, who, like his three bandmates, is an Armenian raised in Los Angeles. "We understand each other. We grew up pretty much the same even though we didn't necessarily grow up together."

"Our parents raised us with the same cultural values," agrees Malakian. "Everyone has the same things passed on to them from generation to generation. We can reminisce to the same types of weddings, foods, and we all speak the language."

Beyond it being a cultural force, the group--also vocalist Serj Tankian and bassist Shavo Odadjian--insists there is no Armenian "angle," and strongly object to being dubbed "Armenian metal" or "ethnometal." The group members stress that their Armenian heritage is only one small part of SOAD.

"We're Armenian, we're proud of being Armenian. We have a song about the Armenian genocide ["P.L.U.C.K."--Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers] because it's an injustice that still has not prevailed," Tankian says of the 1915/ 1916 genocide in which a reported 1.5 million Armenians were killed. "But that is not our only musical or lyrical influence at all."

"It's not what this band is about," concurs Malakian, his eyeliner smudged, his green Mohawk limp atop his head. "It's one song out of 13--but we wrote it so people would ask about it because it's very important to us that people know about [the genocide]."

On their self-titled American Recordings/ Columbia Records debut, SOAD are insightful and incendiary, with their frequently socially/ politically aware lyrics dealing with many hot-button topics like suicide ("Soil"), personal angst ("Sugar"), war ("War?") and suppression of information ("Peephole"). The band's heavy music also incorporates unusual elements, be it a Tom Waits-like waltz or a Middle-Eastern (a la Zeppelin) break.

"Thematically, I like to write about a multiple of things," explains Tankian. "You don't wake up everyday and feel pain, so you don't just write about pain. You think about different things--love, what's happening in the news, the weather, the sports."

"The same thing with the music. We can acquire any kind of style to System Of A Down's sound. Everyone is so broad in their tastes, we don't like to limit ourselves," explains Malakian. "I mean, we like heavy music and we like the pit and we like going crazy onstage, but then there is a certain part of us that likes to use different styles. I do a lot of listening to music and, subconsciously, things come out naturally. But my roots are heavy, so it comes out heavy mixed with a lot of things."

Along with the Beatles, SOAD's roots are deeply entrenched in Slayer. Having just successfully completed the recent U.S. leg of the Slayer tour as the opening act, the SOAD guys are feeling confident. "I got a few cassettes and beer thrown at me," Malakian laughingly admits of the Slayer shows. Even so, "a lot of kids came up to us at the end of the show and said they liked our sound because it was heavy, but original.

"It's overwhelming, everything that has happened to us," continues Malakian. "We always wanted to get to a point where we were successful, but we wanted to be original in what we were doing. Yeah, I always wanted to get a record deal, but I didn't want to do it in a cheap way. "

"Without compromise," finishes Tankian.

"That was our goal," surmises Malakian, smiling. "And if we're doing that, we're happy."