MUSIC REVIEW: SERJ TANKIAN
By Fiona Shepherd
RedOrbit
tertainment/1541745/music_review_serj_tankian/
Sep t 3 2008
TX
SERJ TANKIAN *** ABC, GLASGOW
"ALL empires lie because all they want are natural resources and
the subjugation of people," bellows Serj Tankian. As a song intro,
it beats "here’s another one from the new album" and as casual banter
with the audience, it’s a change from "Glasgow, you’re so crazy" –
although he tries that one too.
Tankian is a charismatic figure. Sporting a pale top hat and dress
shirt, he is the alternative rock ringmaster who never takes himself
as seriously as his politics. Together with his fellow rock radical,
Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, he founded grassroots
activist organisation Axis For Justice and his day job is fronting
politicised metal band System Of A Down.
With the group currently on hiatus, Tankian has released a solo album,
Elect The Dead, playing all the instruments himself. For this tour,
he has recruited a full band, including an intimidating drummer in
a skirt.
For openers, they fired off a salvo as rapid and relentless as a
machine-gun volley, before ducking in and out of contrasting time
signatures, a typically epic rock chorus and carousel-like interludes
that reference the folk music of Tankian’s native Armenia. In short,
it sounded a bit like System Of A Down.
Overall, his solo material is not as ferocious as his parent band’s
assault. Tankian even makes weighty political metal fun, dividing
up the audience for a satirical chant of "praise the Lord, pass the
ammunition". The East European folk influence added vital musical
interest, elevating the set above the usual turgid chest beating
angst of his nu-metal contemporaries.
Tankian’s powerful rock howl sometimes recalls the pseudo- operative
pomp style favoured by over-the-top Eurovision entrants, so perhaps
the fans should not have been surprised to hear a burst of Abba’s
Money, Money, Money incorporated into one of his own tracks. Even
more unexpected was a cover of The Beatles’ Girl that escaped with
its melody intact.
There was even entertainment value in an ambient Pink Floydesque
improvisation, topped with some strangely appealing wailing from
Tankian.
It takes an adventurous musician to pull together so many disparate
influences, yet he seemed entirely in his element throughout.