Bundle

THANK YOU FOR 35 FOLLOWERS

And so we finally arrive to my (probably) final SoaD review. System of a Down is my favorite band of all time, hands down. During their career they continuously released banger after banger, earning them a "must hear" label on each one of their albums. Which is weird when you think about it, as System of a Down doesn't seem like something accessible that everyone can enjoy at first. They can certainly look too goofy or too scary for some people.
When you actually do listen to their discography however, it's instantly clear why they are so universally appraised. They are masters of songwriting, with unimaginable creativity, capable of blending genres that don't seem like they would go well together at all like metal and folk.

My first contact with SoaD was, like most people, Chop Suey. It's an extremely iconic song, one of the most famous metal songs of all time, and it's all around incredible. The instantly recognizable "WAKE UP! GRAB A BRUSH AND PUT A LITTLE MAKEUP!" verse is of course great, but my favorite part is the end, which is just so emotional and beautiful and one of the best in SoaD's discography.
Years later, when I finally started getting into nu metal, I decided to listen to more of their famous songs to see what all the fuss was about. I was instantly hooked. Aerials, Radio/Video, Violent Pornography, BYOB, Toxicity, Sugar.. those songs felt so fresh and new to me, and I was left craving for more.

And so, I decided to check out their first album. To be honest, I did not like it at first. It's a style that I wasn't accommodated to, which was very different from their hit songs and from basically everything I had already heard back then. I was kind of weirded out by the vocals, and the heaviness of it all did not really click for me at first.
After that weird experience I listened to toxicity, their most successful album, considered by many to be their best work and one of the best metal albums of all time. It's a great blend of heaviness and emotion, with political activism sprinkled onto it. I can really see why people consider it to be the quintessential SoaD record, since its success and its quality definitely helped push soad forward in the mainstream scene. Overall I liked it a lot more than Self-Titled at first, but their music still didn't click for me until Mezmerize.

Mezmerize was, and still is, amazing. It's a perfect blend of everything SoaD was before they unfortunately stopped releasing music. It has top notch riffs, vocals, songs, drums, hits, political messages.. everything is great about this album and I personally liked it instantly. Of course I had to listen to Hypnotize right after, since it's a double album and I often group them together as one. Although the second one is not as good it's still a thrilling experience. It does share similarities with Mezmerize but it's still a very different album. Being their most emotional record, it can feel.. special at times, less like SoaD and more like Scars on Broadway (Daron started to take more space in the band's songwriting). But it's still one of the best metal albums of all time soooo.

Finally I had to listen to Steal this Album to finish off their discography. Steal this album is very similar its predecessor (probably because it's made of songs that didn't make the final cut on Toxicity) and sometimes I wonder if it's not better. It has so much of the magic that made Toxicity special, and adds elements from the first SoaD album on top, making it more raw and exciting. It has grown on me a lot even though it doesn't seem particularly amazing at first glance.

I loved listening to system of a down for the first time, and I still do love listening to them. They are just inevitable when it comes to metal for me, and many metalheads think the same.
Now if I had to rank the SoaD albums, it would probably be:

1. Self Titled
2. Toxicity
3. Mezmerize
4. Steal this Album
5. Hypnotize