System Of A Down

#301 Heard Before? I was there. Notes: - over-fucking-use of a certain motherfucking word diminishes its fucking impact, fuckers. - i was never an angry young man, so nu-metal was never my thing. at the same time i hear this as more artistically viable than Limp Bizkit or Korn. - unvarying guitar and bass tones with little in the way of hooks keep the emphasis on the songwriting, with mixed results. - I'm a fan of extreme vocal styles, and this fits the bill. - "Soil" was my favorite song this time around. Very well structured. Verdict: Overwhelming carnivalesque vocals with underwhelming stuttering instrumentals. Listen Again? Nope.

Made it through it, again I appreciate what they do just not my type of music. I was loved by my parents and don't feel angry at society. 6/10 Top song... Spiders

So this album’s pretty good. As of former SOAD listener, this is probably my least listened to album of theirs. Not for any criticism reasons really. It’s just that Toxicity and Mesmerize where my first albums, their songs hitting me the hardest in terms of the cheer impact that makes me like SOAD. But by itself it’s really good. Sugar, Know, Suggestions, Spiders, DDevil, Mind, all of these are really really good. Overall strong as fuck album

Review - Another band, like QOTSA, where he's inexplicably picked the debut rather than later, greater, massively more popular and influential albums. As a SOAD fan, I do love this album. Is it the best intro to the band, or to alternative metal of the era though? No. I'd say you'd have an easier time justifying literally any of their other albums being on this list. That said, it's a good album and this list is light on metal so it's still probably worth including. Score - 7.5/10 Need to listen? YES

Overall Rating - 2.35/5 (4.69/10). Generic, late 90s/early 00s scream-rock. Where it tones down the nu-metal screaming, it's not bad. It's very much not my taste. The musicianship is competent, but repetitive.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Metal is not my genre of choice but this feels cohesive and an easy listen to have in the background. I would definitely attend one of their concerts! Top track for me was Mind, and I can't believe that this was their debut!

⭐⭐⭐ Respekt för originaliteten och att de gör sin grej. Kunde uppskatta genomlyssningen men mer än så är det inte. Det blir en 3a. Bäst är Spider, Peephole

9/10

Great album. Saw them live in the 2000s and they put on a good show. Distinct voice, fast pace music alternating in intensity. Plenty of bangers in there. Spiders was the only song I'd heard of and it happened to be one of my least favourites on the album. Not perfect, however no half stars are possible, so I'll shift it to four stars rather than five. Mainly as I know they have better albums. This album didn't necessarily have a stand-out song. Enjoyed 'Suite-Pee', 'Know' and 'Soil'.

Glad to discover this! I only vaguely knew of SOD but this was a pleasant surprise reminding me of some of my favourite metal bands (Slayer, Sepultura). Haven't much focussed on the lyrics but I appreciate their social engagement. Not a 5 because there are no real standout songs for me, and that bloody producer, Rick Rubin MAKES MY EARS BLEED WITH HIS OVER-COMPRESSION which does the music no favours. Especially in loud music like metal, we need dynamics to keep it fun. Rick, there is a reason why our ears are able to perceive differences in volume. Use it.

yeah its cool

Pretty solid debut, first time ever listening to SOAD

Def not my speed. Appreciate the journey tho!

One note blast...I got bored after the 4th song. I guess for a certain sector of the human species this is great, but for me, not so much. Great power and an unremitting force. Just not for me. I really wanted it to end at Jet Pilot. 3 "okay it's 3x as wonderful as anything by ABBA" stars.

Delightfully weird. There’s nothing else like System of a Down. It’s a shame they released so few albums.

I wasn't expecting to like this any more than, say, Slipknot, but it appeals to me a bit more, perhaps because these dudes, being Armenian, actually do have something to be angry about. 2.5

I think I like Toxicity more as an album, but this one is pretty good too. It took me a while to get into SoaD, but once I did they have become one of my metal favorites.

I had a feeling System of a Down would appear on here, and this album would introduce us to definitely one of the most quirkiest nu-metal bands of the 2000s. somehow their experimental and sometimes brutal, but always political sound would turn them into one of the most popular metal bands of the 21st century. Even though I never hear them on the radio, its their quirks and outspoken opinions on sociopolitical themes that make them hugely popular on music streaming. This being their first album is pretty experimental and all over the place with their sound, while featuring some of the most unhinged and random lyrics I have heard. To this day I have no idea if they are dumb or genius lyrics. I am definitely expercting Toxicity to appear on here at some point

i wouldn't blame anyone for being turned off by this sound but it speaks so loudly to me i can't give this less than a 3. Not their best work by far but plenty of good shit on here

System of the Down's material is usually hit or miss for me. They have a handful of incredible songs each album surrounding by a bunch of mediocre stuff. Here, Spiders is so freaking good, and while the rest of it sounds unique, it doesn't hold a candle that single.

Not a genre I would typically listen to but I respect it

Man, this seemed deeper when I was 13. The guitars sound like crap too.

very high 2 stars. i told myself that one day i want to find a metal band that i can actually enjoy. but today was not that day unfortunately. i really liked the guitar tones on this album though, very heavy and crunchy. but besides that idk. still isn't really for me. i think my favorites were "Spiders" and the last track "P.L.U.C.K."

music is love

Favorite Track: Spiders

Never heard too much of these guys' work before, so really fresh perspective on this all. I loved the manic state this album lives in, constantly shifting moods; never fully settling down before going haywire. The riffing and accompanying instrumentation fully aligns it self with this chaos. I fully see why people praise Serj as a singer, he is very talented. I think for me the album had a very strong baseline, though this lead to very few 'stand-out' songs for me. I think this album is a strong case for a re-visit to try and understand it further, but overall I believe it has a strong foundation and is very well-thought. Highlight Song/s: "Suite-Pee" and "P.L.U.C.K."

Way better than I thought it would be

A classic, man. Its chaotic, it’s political, its what you want from a system album.

Awesome cover art. Solid album. Probably the only SoaD album I haven’t heard before. Repeat Listen! 3 out of 5

After about 1995 I stopped listening to new music for a while, so I never made the transition from grunge/alternative 90’s to Nu Metal. This has enough variation in temp to keep the music interesting. The lyrics are good enough to contrast with other, completely brain dead “Destroy Everything” Nu Metal bands. As a result, I enjoyed listening to this and will keep listening. It has the potential to become one of my favorites

I, of course, know who System of a Down are, but this is not my genre of music. I didn't know any songs on this album. I actually own a song by System of a Down, Lonely Day, but it doesn't sound anything like the songs on this album. Not for me!

# Album Name: System Of A Down # Artist: System Of A Down # Rating: 2/5 # Comments: Meh, underwhelming. Couple of alright songs. Should have been toxicity. # Top Tunes: Spiders / Sugar # Would I listen to it again? No

More vocal variety than I was expecting, having started with Toxicity on its release. Could do without some of it lol. Not the best I've heard, but this album sounds like it laid the groundwork for their later efforts and set the bar high for nu metal and future acts.

Listens: 2 Standout Tracks: Know, Sugar For whatever reason, I've never listened to this album despite having listened to Toxicity and Hypnotize/Mezmerize extensively in my teen and college years. I really the band, but I tend to enjoy their songs more when Serj is actually singing, as opposed to screaming. I imagine if I gave this an extended set of listens, over the course of a few weeks, I would grow to like it as much as Toxicity; It's a real banger of an album with real, raw, unchecked aggression. It's good exercise or biking music for sure, or a twisted way to unwind after a long day of work, if that's your thing.

😍😍😍😍😍😍

I thought I would like this band more than I do. This is one of the few metal / metal-adjacent bands that L really likes, but I just can't get into them. I just really don't like most nu-metal.

What a ride! Brutally raw. 7/10

This album is just amazing. Every song is great. Serj has such a unique voice and its like hes an angel and a devil at the same time. Theres just nothing like this done at this level. I can not give this under a 5 star i just cant.

Feels like I'm in a 2007 tutorial on how to download fraps recorded on unregistered hypercam 2

Wait a second, this isn't Quebec by Ween

“Ooooh, a Gary Larson calendar. [flips through calendar] I don’t get it I don’t get it I…don’t…get it.”

Going with an NBA nerd sports reference here. System of a Down is Derek Rose. Rookie season Derek was good, you could tell he had the raw talent to become one of the greatest to ever play, but as a rookie he was not a finished product. Year 3 Rose ended up being the best player in the league and won an MVP. He then tears his ACL and is mediocre for the rest of his career. This is exactly what happens to SOAD. Self Titled = Rose rookie year Toxicity = year 3 MVP. The rest of their albums = the rest of Rose’s post ACL year career. Self Titled, being the album of the day, has a lot going for it, Sugar is a jam, Spiders as well, the rest of the album feels like they were just adding all of their songs in their catalog to fill up a major label release. If this was Toxicity it would be a no question 5 (I listened to it immediately after and it is close to a perfect album) but this is a 3 star 7.3 out of 10 effort.

This album feels much more like a proof of concept for System of a Down than a fully realized version of the band. It’s an amazing concept, obviously, because some of their later records are among my absolute favorites. But honestly, I think every album they made after this is better, which makes me a little surprised to see the debut on a list of the 1,001 greatest albums. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. There are definitely tracks where you can hear exactly what’s coming, especially “Sugar,” “Suite-Pee,” “Spiders,” and “War?” But a lot of the time it still feels like a more conventional late-’90s metal album, with Serj doing that scream-roar thing you’d hear from bands like Pantera, Sepultura, Lamb of God, whatever. The really interesting moments are when he stops sounding like a metal singer and starts sounding like Serj Tankian. You get those bizarre pitched-up and pitched-down voices, the sudden character changes, the rapid-fire almost-spoken, almost-rapped delivery. They would lean into that stuff so much harder on the later records, and that’s when the band really becomes something nobody else could possibly imitate. You can also already hear the Armenian and Middle Eastern melodic ideas creeping into the music, which would become another huge part of their identity. When that starts mixing with the metal, the hardcore, the strange vocal stuff, and eventually these absurdly catchy pop hooks, that’s the System of a Down I love. And the politics are already completely there. That part of the band did not need to be figured out. From the beginning, they knew what they wanted to say. The anger, the anti-authoritarianism, the Armenian political consciousness, the criticism of war and power and institutions, all of that is baked into the record from the outset and would remain a defining part of who they were as a band. The comparison I keep coming back to is Rage Against the Machine. Rage also sounded like absolutely nobody else when they appeared. The difference is that when Rage Against the Machine came out, they were basically fully formed. You heard that first record and thought, what the fuck is this? They had already figured out exactly what Rage Against the Machine was. And although The Battle of Los Angeles is a very good record, I don’t think anything else in their catalog quite touches the debut. System of a Down feels almost like the reverse of that. The debut gives you the blueprint. The politics are there. The weirdness is there. The Armenian melodies are there. Serj is beginning to become Serj. But they’re still figuring out exactly how all of those ingredients fit together. And then the record ended, and Spotify immediately played “Deer Dance” from Toxicity. Holy shit. Yes. THAT is System of a Down. Toxicity is obviously a little more polished in terms of production, but more importantly, the songwriting just levels up dramatically. Suddenly all of those strange ingredients that are fighting for space on the debut lock together perfectly. This is a good record by a band that was about to become great. 6.8/10

Not for me

Even though I don't care much about its choppinnes and adhd chord changes, I appreciate how the eastern music influences make this band stand out in a positive way.

Yks OK-biisi näillä on, mutta se ei oo tällä levyllä.

Tää näiden eka levy on kyl melkosta ps. tykittelyä. Kaasu hirttänyt kiinni ja täysii mennään. Sillai kun on tullut kuitenkin tuoreempiakin LÄTTYJÄ kuunneltua, niin sit osaa ottaa verrokkina niitä. Varmaan se toksisiitti on se hetki kun rupes oleen enempi rakenteita ja ajatusta biiseissä. Sen takii tää on enempi mielialasidonnainen levy kun varsinaisesti hittiKAMAA. Eli hyvää menoo, mut ei mitenkään sellasta jota jaksas asioikseen usein kuunnella.

Tää on taas yksi näitä bändejä mikä ei vaan lähe itelle yhtään. En kyllä tämänkään levyn parissa viihtynyt sen kummemmin, ei tämä nyt mitään ihan älytöntä paskaa ole, mutta ei kyllä missään määrin hyvääkään.

Sugaaaa !

Even though this may be my favorite SOAD album, they really should have chosen Toxicity over this one, It's much more popular and much more influential. Anyways, the reason I love this album is because of the pure raw energy. Serj's screams all sound so great, and he doesn't really do that on any other album. All the guitars sound so heavy, and even though he is annoying, John really is one of the best and most unique metal drummers out there. All of his parts are just so memorable and creative. Instead of just blast-beating through every song, he draws inspiration from a lot of different genres which just creates such fun drum parts. My favorite songs off this album are "the weird ones", Mind may be my favorite SOAD song, every member really gets a chance to shine on it, and all of the parts are so unique and interesting. I love the drum groove in Soil, and the weird time signature. PLUCK probably has Serj's best scream (I love the harmony). Peephole is so much fun with its weird evil waltz vibe. And of course Suite-Pee, Sugar, and Spiders are all great songs as well. High 5!!!!!!!

Spiders was good but the rest of the album is once again too death metal-y for me

Sorta metal where I really like the riff and the instrumentation, but when it gets to the intense part of the song, it just falls off. Maybe that’s why I like post rock a lot more

Obviously this absolutely slaps. I had always thought I liked this best of all their albums but last night I listened to this and then Toxicity and the latter was actually a fair bit better. Still, petty squabbles, absolute banger, 4.5 stars (but I guess it’ll need to be 5)

I knew this wasn’t going to be my bag, and it mostly was definitely not. A couple songs I didn’t mind though

Hilarious that Serj was like "maybe they'll find a new vocalist so I won't be holding them back anymore." Buddy, your vocals ARE the band. Wild that this is the selection for the list over Toxicity but it's a solid debut. Some good bite, some good righteous anger, a little rough around the edges, a fun listen.

For someone who doesn't enjoy metal all that much, I really love System of a down. I think it's because it's so campy and fun. Like the voices, the energy, the rhythms. They are the perfect balance of being technically very good and also not taking themselves too seriously. I think if I had to explain it, there's a sense of absurdity to all their songs. And I connect deeply with that. Plus, they are wonderful at creating breathing room in their songs so that you can appreciate the quick fast power beats which is a major complaint of mine with other metal. I actually enjoy singing along to the songs, it feels like a true performance. Even when they're screeching. Basically, they're clown metal and they're really good at it. I

3/10 Weak heavy rock. Nowt to redeem it really, apart from it not being as bad as Slipknot.

Angry growling metal is not for me. One or two bright spots in the mix didn’t save this one.

ear rape

Genial. SOAD al máximo. Muy característico.

Once that shouty/gravely style of singing is in a song, I'm out.

What’s remarkable about SOAD is that it’s metal that is serious, wacky and representative of Armenian perspective.

Rough one. I don't really see any appeal, it doesn't even have a song equal to some of their more popular songs. Best track: none Rating: 1.5/10

spectacular give me fourteen more right now

Tidvis for myk og rolig vokal for min del

Lots of people I knew growing up loved System of a Down. Unfortunately it does not do it for me. Not my jam

Not as bad as I expected - the vocals were sort of absurd though

Perfect album for teenagers to play so parents say “ Turn off that Noise”

Worth a revisit

Love heavy metal. Less enthused on what I consider thrash metal. Spider was good but I felt that the rest of the tracks leaned heavily to shouting and less towards melodies.

I get it. But I don't have the kind of personal background that I assume helps one foster a love of nu metal. This seems like a solid album for its genre, but it's not for me.

Such an original sound, it felt like it came out of nowhere when these guys hit. Amazing band, managing to combine metal, prog and punk - and with the vocals on top it just always sounds unhinged in the best of ways

By far not the worst metal/screamo album on the list, which means it gets a 3!

Yeah this was a fuckin banger

Great album, listened twice. Five stars.

5/5

I really wanted to tear my ears off listening to this. It is trash. People always argue with me about why I hate them, especially when they find out I’m Armenian, but this album only makes my position clearer. Nothing connects. The instrumentals, the vocals and the lyrics all feel like they belong to different songs that got thrown together by accident. It comes off like a badly directed clown show where every part is doing its own thing and none of it fits. The whole record is chaotic in the most annoying way. Serj Tankian has a good voice, that much is true. But a good voice does not save this mess. If this is what he is going to make with it, then I have no interest. I cannot stand this album. Loud, disjointed and completely unappealing to me.

I don’t care about this band even with the hype and political messaging, thrash metal does almost nothing for me but some of this is good gym music.

Album 323. System Of A Down (https://open.spotify.com/album/3sSfjX4fhZonjyZ10x0l0f?si=rbBlB9zaStmqnY20yi4c1w) — System Of A Down (1998) It's trash, but it's a golden trash. Great debut, great Nu Metal 3/5 Liked: — Suite-Pee — Know — Mind

Chaotic in a great way. Love the heavy riffs and the weird vocal switches. Great energy!

When I saw this, my first thought was, "goddamnit! You did it again! It should have been Toxicity." Then I listened to the album all the way through for the first time in well over a decade. I was wrong; you were right (but we could split the difference and replace a Brian Eno or Nick Cave album with Toxicity): this is the SOAD album to listen to before you die. All due respect to Sepultura, Serj's vocals are the right answer here. He's the ringmaster of a chaotic musical circus. From the wild tempo and time signature changes to the confusing (in the best way) interlude of Spiders, this album fucks. Hard.

Day 399 What an odd album, times where I found it extremely cringeworthy but it was never boring Highlights Spiders Soil Darts

Rake!

Now this is really good hard rock, and one hell of a debut album.

not my vibe at all

Me sobreestimuló, tiene temas muy cool pero es un griterio tan saturado que a veces siento que carece de sentido. No me encantan ellos 6/10

The beginning of something.....that is for sure.

Sugar

I hate nu-metal

too harsh for me

Not my sauce

Lyrics kinda cringe. But great energy. I enjoyed the pick me up feel I got. Made me want to shoot American political lobbyists in the face. Even more than usual.

It speaks to the high quality of System that this is one of their weaker albums because it is nearly flawless

I usually like my metal with a bit more melody, but I’m a sucker for that growling bass and guitar sound Metallica made so popular, so this worked for me. I also like the fact that the frontman sounds like he’s not taking himself too seriously. There’s a sense of fun to it that makes the whole thing more enjoyable.

I've only known their hits but a full album didn't disappoint. I guess I need to check out more of their music.

Honestly have no idea how to rate this

Awesome guitar riffs, fat, juicy bass, incredible vocals from Serj, technical drumming that compliments rather than distracts, driving and infectious overall, with socially aware lyrics. And in lyrics, it's pretty rare to have top-of-mix metal vocals and that they're completely intelligible. It's hard to ask for more out of an album. Combining the styles they do absolutely should not work on paper, but SoaD's style make some of the most interesting and catchy recordings I have heard from the time this album came out until now. ⭐⭐⭐⭐.49

Fuck yeah dude! This is obviously a 5. Don't know if I ever hear it all the way through but of course I'm familiar with the common ones on here. Like Sugar, Spiders and

this is mental, very very underrated it’s got some really solid tracks on it, great unique band

89/100. As debuts go, this is definitely up there. It’s so heavy and Serj’s vocals are just outstanding. It’s a very easy listen, to be fair for being this hard. For the most part it’s about concerns with authority.