Every so often I feel like ordering a pizza with “Pepperoni and green peppers, mushrooms, olives, chives” and seeing if anyone gets the reference.
Steal This Album! - System of a Down
It amazes me that I owned three albums by System of a Down before I started to realize how much I love them. I got this one after Roulette showed up on my Pandora station consisting mostly of acoustic folk rock, and I was surprised to find it there. The song is a marked example of the “token light song” that many metal bands like to put into their albums, being a very stripped-down voice-and-acoustic-strings piece with wistful, relationship-centered lyrics. But it’s still very distinctly theirs, and I like that.
The rest of the album is much less light, with the band’s usual level of hard-hitting themes and equally hard-hitting sounds. And in several songs, a focus on percussion that reminds me of another favorite band, Course of Empire. There also seems to be an increased focus on spiritual themes, as seen in songs like Innervision, Ego Brain, Thetawaves, and Streamline.
And then there’s bits that sound spiritual, but maybe are just a delivery system for pure sonic sugar. Like I-E-A-I-A-I-O, whose title is a transcription of the nonverbal chant-like refrain; it frames each word-salad verse like a mystical incantation.
I think if I had to rank all of System of a Down’s albums, this one would just barely make the top of the list as my favorite. It’s quite consistently awesome-sounding, with many high points throughout, and relatively few low points. I think it’s also got some of the most beautiful vocal performances I’ve heard from the band. And there’s a lot of drums in it. I love drums.
Next: Mezmerize
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