PRECIOUS METAL; CALIFORNIA’S SYSTEM OF A DOWN HAS MADE A CAREER OF DEFYING THE POLITICAL AND METAL ESTABLISHMENTS. LISTENERS’ CONFUSION LONG AGO GAVE WAY TO ELATION
by: AL KRATINA
The Gazette (Montreal)
August 7, 2012 Tuesday
Final Edition
Writing about System of a Down can be frustrating. That’s because
describing the style of the California band – which plays the
Heavy MTL festival on Saturday – can be an exercise in futility,
marked by seemingly endless hyphens stringing together phrases like
“progressive-alt-metal” and “experimental-funk-rock.” Either that,
or you’re forced to use awkward metaphors: they sound like metal
played on a hollow-bodied guitar full of spiders; they make the kind
of music you’d hear in your head right before a brain aneurysm during
a Faith No More concert.
Even drummer John Dolmayan has difficulty defining the band’s sound.
“I don’t know if it’s for me to describe,” he says. “It’s like
describing what you look like over the phone. You can give an idea,
but it’ll never be (that close).”
System of a Down formed in 1994, releasing its self-titled debut
four years later. While not an immediate chart-topper, songs like
Sugar peeled back genre conventions, revealing a web of unusual and
esoteric influences – heavy metal transmuted from unicorn blood and
dragon horn. Three years later, Toxicity debuted at No. 1 in the
U.S. and Canada. Blending everything from thrash metal to Middle
Eastern music, the album was no easier to describe.
To Dolmayan, System’s uniqueness comes from the members’ disparate
influences. “Growing up, we used to go to weddings, and hear jazz
standards, Armenian songs and Arabic music,” he says. “It all got
crammed into our heads and then regurgitated out.”
But even with such eclectic ingredients, the resulting sound is
surprisingly unified.
“A prism takes a beam of light, and turns out a rainbow,” says
Dolmayan. “System of a Down is kind of a reverse prism, where this
rainbow of music went into it, we focus it, and turn it into a beam
of light that comes out the other side.”
Metal fans have a tendency to react to innovation with a particularly
mouthy version of toxic shock syndrome, so it’s not surprising that
System found some listeners were initially resistant to its sound. But
the band quickly made an impression nonetheless.
“We laughed at the backlash,” says Dolmayan, “because we knew that the
next time we came to a city the same people that hated us would be the
ones at the show. We took it as a challenge more than anything else,
to convert those people.”
The conversions began at the most unlikely of places: the pits of a
Slayer tour.
“The first tours that we did – were with Slayer,” Dolmayan says.
“There isn’t a band that you can open for that has a more rabid
following. Their fans like Slayer, and only Slayer.”
At the time, not only did System sound unique, but they looked like
a cross between a masquerade ball and an Illuminati death cult.
“We wore makeup, masks. Daron (Malakian, guitarist) had a pink bow on,”
Dolmayan says. “They would look at us with shock the first few songs,
but I remember every day, every show, we would slowly conquer the
audience, and make them believers in what we were doing.”
Equally unique is the band’s lyrical approach, at least in the normally
conservative world of heavy metal. Generally speaking, metal concerns
itself with politics only when it lays the groundwork for a concept
album about tank battles. But System’s lyrics often push progressive
politics and social-justice causes – subjects normally reserved for
punk bands and Facebook petitions.
But Dolmayan is adamant that the band isn’t interested in preaching.
“That’s not what people pay for,” he says. “They pay to come see us
play live, create magic on stage, not to be told how to live their
lives. – If someone takes something positive out of our music, or what
we say on stage, that’s great. But we don’t ever want to force them.”
Saturday’s show will mark the band’s first Montreal appearance in
more than half a decade. Like fellow Heavy MTL headliner Slipknot,
System has only recently returned from a lengthy break.
“It was time,” Dolmayan says. “While I do think the hiatus was good
for the band, I wish it wasn’t so long.”
While there are no plans for new music at the moment, Dolmayan remains
hopeful for the future.
“We don’t know what will happen next,” he says, “but I’d like to be in
the studio at this time next year – possibly making an album by 2014.”
As for whether the new music will continue the eclectic experimentation
that has defined the band, Dolmayan is confident System will continue
to surprise. And he isn’t worried about any backlash.
“If we were concerned about what people think, System wouldn’t exist,”
he says. “I have no concerns about what the album will sound like. I
just worry about when it will come out.”
System of a Down performs Saturday at 9: 15 p.m. as part of the Heavy
MTL festival at Jean Drapeau Park. Tickets cost $85.50 (day pass)
to $238.50 (reservedseating weekend pass). Call 790-2525 or visit
heavymtl.com.