All My CDs, pt 105: Hypnotize

Hypnotize - System of a Down

Hypnotize and the album that preceeded it, Mezmerize, each stand alone quite well, but they’re also each meant to be half of a larger whole. Apart from the similar titles, their covers have similar imagery, and the packaging of Mezmerize is designed so that Hypnotize can nestle comfortably into its back flap. It also seems that Hypnotize continues and elaborates on some of the themes in Mezmerize’s songs, and its final track is a longer reprise of Mez’s first track, Soldier Side. In general, the songs are deeper and more personal in their explorations of the political, social, and spiritual themes.

Over the years, one of my favorite songs on this album has been the title track, Hypnotize. The way that it seamlessly draws connections between personal and political issues (as someone once said, “the personal is political”) strikes me as an especially adept navigation of that particular continuum. Plus the sounds those guitars make are some of the most beautiful I have in my collection.

It’s clear that these two albums together are supposed to mean something. I confess, I haven’t devoted much of my mental energy over the years to trying to divine that meaning. If I were to venture a guess, after immersing myself in both for about a week now, it might go something like this:

Mezmerize explores many of the ways that propaganda has seeped into all aspects of popular culture, lulling the public into a false belief about their lives and their place in the world. The albums’ titles refer to that false belief, indicating that we’ve been to some extent brainwashed into accepting the status quo and being content with a less meaningful existence and a comfortable ignorance about the suffering that exists in the world.

In turn, Hypnotize proceeds to break through that trance, looking the truth in the face and shaking away the fog of self-deception. What it finds is violence, exploitation, isolation, and yet a certain amount of guilt for breaking this comfortable trance in the first place. In one song, Kill Rock ‘n Roll,

So I felt like the biggest asshole
When I killed your rock n roll
Every time I look In your eyes, every day I'm watching you die
All the thoughts I see in you about how I

Yet the truth must, and ultimately will, be known.

Next: Elect the Dead