SYSTEM OF A DOWN DISCOGRAPHY & VIDEOS

1. System of a Down (1998)

2. Toxicity (2001)

3. Steal this Album! (2002)

4. Mezmerize (2005)

5. Hypnotize (2005)

System of a Down

Released June 30, 1998, Length 40:41, Label American

1.Suite-Pee 2:32

2.Know 2:56

3.Sugar 2:33

4.Suggestions 2:44

5.Spiders 3:35

6.DDevil 1:43

7.Soil 3:25

8.War? 2:40

9.Mind 6:16

10.Peephole 4:04

11.CUBErt 1:49

12.Darts 2:42

13.P.L.U.C.K. 3:37

System of a Down is the debut album by American heavy metal band System of a Down, first released in 1998. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on February 2, 2000. Two years later, after the success of Toxicity, it was certified platinum.

Overview

The cover artwork is from an anti-fascist, World War II-era poster designed by the artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany, which was contemporary with and directly against the Third Reich. The text on the original poster is: "5 fingers has a hand! With these 5 grab the enemy!" This slogan inspired part of the text contained on the back of the System of a Down album: "The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create". Later, it is written in bold letters: "Open your eyes, open your mouths, close your hands and make a fist".

Reception

Q magazine (10/01, p. 152) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This remains an excellent starting point for this most curious bands".

The album is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Music critic Piero Scaruffi includes System of a Down at number 43, just after Iron Maiden's self-titled album and before Satyricon's Dark Medieval Times, in his classification of the best metal albums of all times.

Toxicity

Released September 4, 2001, Length 44:06, Label American

1.Prison Song 3:21

2.Needles 3:13

3.Deer Dance 2:55

4.Jet Pilot  2:06

5.X 1:58

6.Chop Suey! 3:30

7.Bounce 1:54

8.Forest 4:00

9.ATWA 2:56

10.Science 2:43

11.Shimmy 1:51

12.Toxicity 3:39

13.Psycho 3:45

14.Aerials 6:13

Toxicity is the second album by American heavy metal band System of a Down. Produced by Rick Rubin, Toxicity was released on September 4, 2001 by American Recordings, debuting at #1 on both the United States, with 220,000 copies, and #1 on the Canadian charts. Toxicity has sold over 12 million copies worldwide and is multi-platinum in the United States.

Toxicity was released without a Parental Advisory sticker, despite a fair amount of minor profanity.

Background

Toxicity received mass critical acclaim, making many end-of-year "best of" lists (such as being named SPIN Magazine's #1 record of the year), and earning a Grammy Award nomination for lead single "Chop Suey!"

This album marks a sonic departure from the heavy guitar riffing featured on their debut album. It is the only System of a Down album not to feature the Parental Advisory label, with only minor profanities. However, a limited edition of the album containing a bonus CD with behind the scenes footage of the making of the album does feature the Parental Advisory label, while a different limited edition containing a DVD with the "Toxicity" music video and live footage also does not feature the label.

Several songs have been featured in various video game soundtracks. In 2002, "Science" and "Shimmy" were featured in the games ATV Offroad Fury 2 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 respectively. The song "Chop Suey!" is featured in Rock Band 2 in 2008, and "Toxicity" is featured in Guitar Hero: Metallica and as downloadable content for the Rock Band series. The song "X" was originally recorded for the band's 1998 self-titled debut but it was re-worked for Toxicity.

The album is listed in Blender's 500 CDs You Must Own. MusicRadar held a public poll and Toxicity was ranked as 26th greatest heavy metal album in the list of The 50 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time. The album is ranked at number 44 in Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of the Decade for 2000's.

Digital Dream Door has currently ranked Toxicity at #72 on their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Albums", and #16 on their list of "100 Greatest Albums of the 2000's".

Reception

Metacritic a review aggregator website, gave the album an average score of 73% from nine reviews, which indicates "generally favourable reviews"

Don Kaye of Blabbermouth.net gave the album ten out of ten, one of only 21 albums to achieve a perfect rating from the site.

Rolling Stone (9/27/01, p.70) – 3.5 stars out of 5 – "Both manic and schizoid, Tankian veers easily from sing-rap rhythm to Korn-ish hysterics to demonic baritone growl to doomily ruminative....the music insists on forward motion without trapping itself in a thrashy lock-step rut."

Spin (p.89) – "System have an undeniable nerd-prog charm."

Entertainment Weekly (9/7/01, pp.161–2) – "Strange and engaging....It all adds up to bizarro type of metal that has a warped majesty and strength." – Rating: B-

Q magazine (9/01, p.121) – 4 stars out of 5 – "Matches Slipknot for manic intensity while employing a freeform approach to songcraft which invites comparison to the lunatic-fringe rock of the '60s."

Alternative Press (2/02, p.64) – Ranked #9 in AP's "25 Best Albums of 2001."

Mojo (p.54) – Ranked #93 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics."

Robert Christgau – 1-star honorable mention – "Overarrangements no prob for we who avoid art rock like the plague this means to cure."

Steal this Album!

Released November 26, 2002, Length 43:31, Label American/ Columbia

1.Chic 'n' Stu 2:23

2.Innervision 2:33

3.Bubbles 1:56

4.Boom! 2:14

5.Nüguns 2:30

6.A.D.D. (American Dream Denial) 3:17

7.Mr. Jack 4:09

8.I-E-A-I-A-I-O 3:08

9. 36 0:46

10.Pictures 2:06

11.Highway Song 3:13

12.Fuck the System 2:12

13.Ego Brain 3:21

14.Thetawaves 2:36

15.Roulette 3:21

16.Streamline 3:37

Steal This Album! is the third studio album by American heavy metal band System of a Down, released on November 26, 2002, on American Recordings. Produced by Rick Rubin and Daron Malakian, and reached #15 in the Billboard Top 200.

Album information

This album was released shortly after a collection of medium-quality MP3s found its way onto the Internet under the unofficial name Toxicity II, a year after the release of the group's multi-platinum record, Toxicity. The band issued a statement expressing their disappointment that their fans were hearing unfinished material, and released the finished versions of the leaked material. Most, but not all tracks from the original leak (e.g. "Cherry") made it onto Steal This Album!, and three new tracks such as "Roulette" were also added. Many song titles, lyrics, and melodies were changed, making the new album significantly different from the unfinished product.

Though often reported in the media as being a collection of B-sides and outtakes, the band insists that the Steal This Album! material is of the same quality as the tracks which made it onto Toxicity. Vocalist Serj Tankian has said that the songs were left out of Toxicity "because they didn't fit the overall continuity of the album". An alternate version of "Streamline" was used in The Scorpion King soundtrack, which was released in early 2002, and as a B-side on some copies of the "Aerials" single.

The album title is a reference to Abbie Hoffman's book Steal This Book, which is regarded as a classic example of counterculture literature. A similar title (Steal This Movie!) was used for a movie about Hoffman's life. A year prior to this album however, The Suicide Machines had already released an album titled Steal This Record. The Coup had also released a Steal This Album in 1998.

The packaging for this album is quite unusual. The album comes in a normal CD jewel case with only a disc and no booklet. On the CD and the back of the case, the text is styled as if written by a black permanent marker, in faux-bootleg appearance. This is an obvious response by the band to the people who leaked the original Toxicity II CD.

Most songs on the album have received limited play to a live audience. However, songs "Mr. Jack" and "Roulette" were played extensively to live audiences. Multi-instrumentalist Arto Tunçboyacıyan sings on the song "Bubbles", making his third appearance with System of a Down (having appeared on two songs on Toxicity).

In May 2009, drummer John Dolmayan revealed that the album is his favorite System of a Down release.

Reception

CMJ (12/16/02, p. 23) - "Both arty aggro and perverted political punk."

Entertainment Weekly (11/29/02, p. 105) - "Steal This Album stands head-and-tattooed shoulders above its competition in the hard-rock genre."

Rolling Stone (12/12/02, p. 93) - "An absurdist blast of political rage, silly theater and shattered math metal."

Spin (2/03, p. 96) - 8 out of 10 - "The way these simple songs blur together works in the album's favor: Just when you think you've got a foothold, the ground disappears under your feet."

Mezmerize

Released May 16, 2005, Length 36:15, Label American

1.Soldier Side - Intro 1:07

2.B.Y.O.B. 4:15

3.Revenga 3:48

4.Cigaro 2:11

5.Radio/Video 4:09

6.This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on 7.This Song 2:08

8.Violent Pornography 3:31

9.Question! 3:20

10.Sad Statue 3:25

11.Old School Hollywood 2:56

12.Lost in Hollywood 5:20

Mezmerize is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band System of a Down. It is the first half of the Mezmerize/Hypnotize double album. It was released on May 17, 2005, six months before Hypnotize, on American Records. The album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide since its release.

Background

Mezmerize was released to universal acclaim, scoring 85 at metacritic based on 19 reviews. The album debuted at number one in at least 12 countries, including the US Billboard 200, with 453,000 copies, and has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA. It was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005. The hit single B.Y.O.B. won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Despite the time difference between releases, the album actually takes its name from the lyrics in the song "Hypnotize"; Mezmerize and Hypnotize were recorded within the same time frame. The album features guitarist Daron Malakian sharing most of the vocal work with vocalist Serj Tankian, splitting the vocals at least halfway on most of the tracks.

The Japanese version of the album contains a slightly different mix of 'Soldier Side (Intro)' without strings, while the leaked mp3 version of Cigaro contains a 4-stick hit intro not present in the retail version. The album artwork is done by the father of guitarist Daron Malakian, Vartan Malakian.

Hypnotize

Released November 22, 2005, Length 39:46, Label American

1.Attack 3:06

2.Dreaming 3:59

3.Kill Rock 'n Roll 2:28

4.Hypnotize 3:09

5.Stealing Society 2:58

6.Tentative 3:36

7.U-Fig 2:55

8.Holy Mountains 5:28

9.Vicinity of Obscenity 2:51

10.She's Like Heroin 2:44

10.Lonely Day 2:47

11.Soldier Side 3:40

Hypnotize is the fifth album by American heavy metal band System of a Down and the second half of the Mezmerize/Hypnotize double album. It was released on November 22, 2005, six months after the release of companion album Mezmerize. Mezmerize and Hypnotize both debuted at number #1 on the Billboard chart making the band one of the few to achieve this with two albums in the same year. Hypnotize was System of a Down's last studio album before their four year hiatus from August 2006 to November 2010.

Reception

Hypnotize opened at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 320,000 copies the first week. The album debuted at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 47,000 copies in its first week. The album was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA on December 13, 2005. Since its release, Hypnotize has sold 8 million copies worldwide.

Entertainment Weekly (No. 851, p. 100) - "[T]hey're flaunting a heretofore underexplored sensitive side, offsetting their trademark stampeding riffology with flashes of delicate lyricism." - Grade: B+

Rolling Stone (No. 988, p. 117) - 3.5 out of 5 stars - "Hell immediately runneth over on Malakian's scoured-staccato guitars and Dolmayan's furious hammering."

Spin (p. 62) - Ranked #20 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005."

Uncut (p. 109) - 3 stars out of 5 - "System succeed through their skill at wielding complex, progressive heaviness in a pop context."

The album was initially going to start with a Middle Eastern style instrumental track entitled "Hezze," which Malakian stated was one of his favorite songs on the record prior its release. It was dropped at the last minute because the group wanted to open the album with a heavy song and because the band felt it was incongruous with the other songs on the album. However, during live performance of "Mr. Jack" Daron will yell "Hello Hezze" after the first chorus. A funk/jazzy guitar instrumental, believed to be "Hezze" is then played after.