System of a Down are one of the strangest “starter bands” in the Metal Canon, and their smash-hit sophomore album Toxicity is one of the strangest albums to bring so many under the metal fold. You’re not greeted by classic heavy metal horror iconography on the cover. You’re not treated with blistering, shreddy guitar solos. There’s nothing all that poppy to draw in the metal agnostics nor anything especially brutal to lure in the born metal sickos. But ever since kid Andy-War-Hall first witnessed some other kid caterwauling “Wake up! Gababushanpudonaiddlemaygup!” on Rock Band II, I’ve been sold on heavy music. Because it’s not despite System of a Down and Toxicity’s eccentricities that they serve as an excellent gateway to the genre, but because of them.
I’ve heard many revisionist claims over the years that System of a Down were never nü metal. These are wrong. Take the down-tuned grimy groove of “X”‘s second riff or the Rootsesque toms on “Forest” and tell me they don’t get your wallet chain jangling. But I get it, too. Toxicity is more artistically aligned with Faith No More or Primus than Korn, a project defined by restless experimentation and adventure while operating within the bounds of popular music. Toxicity treats listeners to a ludicrous gamut of styles, serving up folk-tinged hardcore in “Deer Dance,” psychedelic thrash in “Science,” symphonic alt-metal in “Aerials,” and so, so much more. SoaD make it all make sense—and look easy. Guitarist Daron Malakian (Scars on Broadway) stacks deceptively simple, eccentric riffs over each other in ways that turn songs like “Science,” “Psycho,” and the inimitable “Chop Suey!” into lush canvases of belligerence1 while drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian deliver blistering chops (“Needles”) and effortless groove (“Toxicity”). And vocalist Serj Tankian is simply one-of-one; who else could have made the ridiculous vocal acrobatics of “Chop Suey!” and “Toxicity” or the buckwild deliveries of “Bounce” and “Shimmy” work? Not many, just as not many bands other than System of a Down could make as off-beat and idiosyncratic an album as effortlessly catchy as Toxicity.
Toxicity makes for shockingly easy listening, and yet System of a Down managed to imbue challenging ideas into its artistic fabric. Toxicity swings at head-spinning speeds between lyrical bluntness and esotericism.2 One moment you’re being regaled in explicit details of the corruption surrounding the American prison industry (“Prison Song”) and the very next they’re yelling at you to pull a tapeworm out of your ass (“Needles”). Tankien will be going off about overpopulation and genocide (“X”) and all the while you’re still wondering what was up with the horse earlier (“Jet Pilot”). But both of these approaches demonstrate SoaD’s artistic daring. Toxicity wasn’t written to make you comfortable: SoaD won’t mince words on political matters and neither are they inclined to spell it out for you. If you’re like me, it’ll give you plenty to mull over for years. “Science” will have you examining how belief shapes human experience, “Forest” will have you questioning your place within the natural order, and “ATWA” will have you weighing how (or if) you can incorporate worthwhile ideals from an overall evil ideology (“Air, Trees, Water, and Animals” being infamous cult leader Charles Manson’s ecological philosophy.3) Along with System of a Down’s distinct musical identity, this commitment to exploring the hard and obscure truths of reality is what makes Toxicity not only so alluring to begin with but so inviting to revisit years later.
System of a Down and Toxicity teach the burgeoning metalhead an invaluable lesson: expect the unexpected. As much as metal purists loathe to admit it, heavy metal is a particularly fluid, adventurous genre, hellbent on deviation and experimentation wherever anyone is brave enough to try. SoaD weren’t afraid of contradictions when they made Toxicity: it is both blunt and off-beat, confrontational and crowd-pleasing, immediate and demanding of your attention and consideration. If you haven’t given Toxicity a spin in a while, give it a go sometime and see if you can’t find something you’ve never noticed before. Similarly, if you know someone who’s curious about heavy metal, you wouldn’t go wrong pointing them in Toxicity’s direction. Subjecting them to “Chop Suey!” on Rock Band couldn’t hurt, either.
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