All My CDs, pt. 105: Mezmerize

Mezmerize - System of a Down

After getting my first internet-connected laptop of my very own, I quickly began to dabble in illegal music downloading. I mostly used it to discover, risk-free, some musicians that weren’t currently on the radio, including the Indigo Girls (now a favorite). But I also used it to shamelessly get more music by some bands I was already well aware of and could easily have bought at the local record store. Some tracks from Mezmerize were among those, specifically Revenga, Cigaro, and Violent Pornography. Eventually I bought the album, more out of completionism than guilt; I had come to the decision that downloading individual tracks, piecemeal, was not for me.

I have some things to say about Violent Pornography. Like I said in my Toxicity review, System of a Down is “no such thing as TMI” music; they dare to use imagery and subject matter often considered taboo, and not just as a joke or for shock value. I usually find that the explicit lyrics are usually thoughtful, powerful, and serve to make an important point that shouldn’t be taken lightly. For instance, in Needles, the image of a tapeworm is used to emphasize the draining, parasitic nature of addiction. Violent Pornography seemed to be an exception; for several years I saw only sexually explicit lyrics and not much in the way of depth or meaning.

But recently, I started to feel like I get it.

It’s a violent pornography
choking chicks and sodomy
the kind of shit you get on your TV

This song came out in 2005, well after the Internet had become established not only as a common household media source but especially as a discrete way to acquire pornography. It was two years after Avenue Q debuted, with a song called The Internet is for Porn. And yet here’s a song describing the most hardcore porn as something you get on TV, the more mainstream, wholesome, mass-marketed medium. What is this song trying to say about mainstream media? About pop culture in general? The lyrics also repeatedly taunt, “Bet you didn’t know.”

I could analyze any of these other songs in as much depth. Some of them I especially like because I’m impressed with how difficult they must have been to write and perform. These include Question! with its confusingly syncopated rhythms, and This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m On This Song, which is... well, hyperactively fast-paced. It makes an excellent running song, as does the rest of the band’s repertoire.

This was one of my favorite album for a very long time, and I find I do not love it any less for all the time that’s passed. It’s beautiful from start to finish.

Next: Hypnotize