System Of A Down

Daron Malakian, Serj Tankian and Shavo Odajian met at the same Armenian private college in Los Angeles. In the early 1990s, the first two played in a group called Soil. They appealed to Shavo for the managers, and Shavo eventually took the place of bassist when Soil withdrew in 1994. Shortly after the band lost its drummer, and decided at the same time to change musical orientation, this time based on the complicity between Daron and Shavo, Soil becomes System Of A Down. The band finally became complete when drummer John Dolmayan joined them, the band could finally start. They obviously began by recording a demo of eight tracks, a demo that they then circulated in Los Angeles bars and concert halls. System Of A Down quickly developed a small popularity and was finally spotted in 1997 by producer Rick Rubin (Slayer , Red Hot Chile Peppers ). The latter proposed to sign them and produce their first album. System of a Down came out in 1998 and at the same time shook the metal scene by bringing a new sound and various oriental influences mixed with a metal without concession. To promote the album, the band embarked on a tour with Slayer and Sepultura, which inevitably helped to make them known despite the musical differences between these bands. It was in 2001 that System Of A Down exploded in terms of popularity with Toxicity, an album sold six million copies, and quickly became cult because of the quality of its songs. The crazy and committed side of the band, along with their melodies and aggressiveness, make them appeal to a large majority of people. As well as Korn , System Of A Down is one of the few bands to overflow with Metal in terms of audience. In 2002 an album made up of unedited people circulated on the net, it was soon called "Toxicity 2". The latter actually includes studio falls from the recordings of the eponymous and their latest record. Aware of the interest of its fans in these tracks broadcast in poor quality, the band decides to re-record some of these falls and spells them on Steal This Album! , an ironic title that traces a little the story of this album that the band refuses to consider as such. Not wanting to make any promotional tours for the album, the band took a sabbatical year, giving only two concerts at the Reading Festival and making only one clip, for Boom! , directed by Michael Moore ( RATM Sleep Now In The Fire , Bowling For Columbine , Farenheit 11/9 ...) to denounce the war in Iraq. That year Serj Tankian released Serart under his label Serjical Strike in collaboration with Arto Tuncboyaciyan (responsible for the Toxicity Outro). He is also very active in the NGO Axis of Justice, which he founded with Tom Morello ( Audioslave , Rage Against The Machine ). In addition to social actions, they seek above all to inform people about the geo-political problems surrounding them. The band returned to the studio in 2004 to record the highly anticipated suite of Toxicity. System Of A Down however had a creativity that proved to be very productive and decided to record a double album that was released in two stages, Mezmerize in May 2005, and Hypnotize in November 2005. The quartet was strongly criticized as a result of these two albums, the fault of a slight musical shift and the fact that both albums were particularly short. In any case, these Mezmerizes and Hypnotizes have been a big hit all over the world, and System Of A Down is now a leading metal band.
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