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SYSTEM OF A DOWN AT THE DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL IN UK
Review by Andre Simonian
_http://www.systemofadown.com_ (http://www.systemofadown.com)
Like every year, I packed my bags and set off to my yearly
spiritual destination (apart from Armenia) which is the Download
Festival. Download is a heavy metal festival which attracts about
100,000 people each year, but has still managed to keep it underground
and healthy, unlike, let's say Glastonbury or Reading Festivals,
which have become increasingly commercial. This year's Download
Festival took place in Donington Park near Derby on the 9th, 10th
and 11th of June. There were 108 bands appearing on four different
stages during the three days. Each night the last band on each stage
is the headliner of that stage, and obviously the headliner on the
main stage is the most important band. Moreover, the headliner of the
main stage on the final night, is the Main Headliner of the whole
Download Festival. This year that Main Headlining band happened to
be four Armenian boys under the name of System of A Down....
The fact that Ozzy Osborne's Black Sabbath (The godfathers of Heavy
Metal) were headlining the second night and SOAD headlining the final
night goes to prove how important and vital SOAD are at the moment. To
cut a long story short, after two days of witnessing amazing bands and
three nights of sleeping in a tent, and a number of strange incidents,
(like getting a big emotional hug from a fat drunk guy on the second
night just because I was from the same country as SOAD!), I woke up
feeling excited and ready for their show. Even my sister drove up
from London to see them.
The third day was packed with big names like Nightwish, Slayer,
Killswitch Engage. The band Slipknot were the co-headliners. When they
were playing, a nasty wind started blowing & it started raining. I
wasn't surprised, since it had been cloudy and grey all day. When
Slipknot finished their set, and the crew started changing the
stage-set for SOAD, music on the other stages gradually ended and all
100,000 people gathered to witness the mighty SOAD. At the same time
the rain stopped & the sky cleared up and turned to a nice orange
colour behind the stage.
When Daron Malekian's guitar intro to "Soldier Side" started, the
crowd went crazy. "B.Y.O.B" (their new single) followed, with the
crowd singing every word of the amazingly strange lyrics. It was an
amazing spectrum to see 100,000 people chanting "why do they always
send the poor" referring to the American policy of sending the poor
to fight their wars. Then a set of hits followed. We got "Aerials",
"Chop Suey", "Toxicity", "Cigaro", "war?" (a song dedicated to the
Armenian Genocide), and "Mr. Jack", "Forest".
Watching SOAD for the eighth time, six years after seeing them play
their debut gig in UK, supporting Slayer at the tiny London Astoria,
was an emotional experience. How these four boys have improved
musically is just incredible. They are a much tighter band now. John
Dolmaian has improved so much as a drummer in mixing Metal, R'n'B,
and Hip-Hop grooves. Singer Serj Tankian can now play piano and guitar
whilst hypnotising us with his beautiful voice. Shavo Odadjan is an
amazing and fast bass player.
The driving force behind this band, Daron Malekian (the guitarist),
who has written most of the songs and the lyrics on the latest SOAD
album is simply genius. I love the fact that he doesn't really obey
any musical rules when it comes to song writing or playing guitar,
and that is the definition of a true musician to me.
For me, the highlight of the set was when they played "Psycho"... it
is not my favourite SOAD song but the fact that Serj replaces some
of the lyrics with famous Armenian poetry "yes im anush Haiastani
arevaham barn em sirum" is just amazing. The 100,000 crowd looked
puzzled, since this is the only line during SOAD's set that they
don't recall having heard before.
SOAD bring the Download Festival 2005 to a beautiful end, knowing the
fact that their time is now... The crowd goes back to their tents
"Mezmorised" and "Hypnotised", talking about nothing but SOAD. I
drive home longing for a hot shower, wondering why weren't there any
Armenian flags in the crowd, and by now, kind of understanding why
that fat guy hugged me... coz we armoes are really special....
Review by Andre Simonian
_http://www.systemofadown.com_ (http://www.systemofadown.com)
Like every year, I packed my bags and set off to my yearly
spiritual destination (apart from Armenia) which is the Download
Festival. Download is a heavy metal festival which attracts about
100,000 people each year, but has still managed to keep it underground
and healthy, unlike, let's say Glastonbury or Reading Festivals,
which have become increasingly commercial. This year's Download
Festival took place in Donington Park near Derby on the 9th, 10th
and 11th of June. There were 108 bands appearing on four different
stages during the three days. Each night the last band on each stage
is the headliner of that stage, and obviously the headliner on the
main stage is the most important band. Moreover, the headliner of the
main stage on the final night, is the Main Headliner of the whole
Download Festival. This year that Main Headlining band happened to
be four Armenian boys under the name of System of A Down....
The fact that Ozzy Osborne's Black Sabbath (The godfathers of Heavy
Metal) were headlining the second night and SOAD headlining the final
night goes to prove how important and vital SOAD are at the moment. To
cut a long story short, after two days of witnessing amazing bands and
three nights of sleeping in a tent, and a number of strange incidents,
(like getting a big emotional hug from a fat drunk guy on the second
night just because I was from the same country as SOAD!), I woke up
feeling excited and ready for their show. Even my sister drove up
from London to see them.
The third day was packed with big names like Nightwish, Slayer,
Killswitch Engage. The band Slipknot were the co-headliners. When they
were playing, a nasty wind started blowing & it started raining. I
wasn't surprised, since it had been cloudy and grey all day. When
Slipknot finished their set, and the crew started changing the
stage-set for SOAD, music on the other stages gradually ended and all
100,000 people gathered to witness the mighty SOAD. At the same time
the rain stopped & the sky cleared up and turned to a nice orange
colour behind the stage.
When Daron Malekian's guitar intro to "Soldier Side" started, the
crowd went crazy. "B.Y.O.B" (their new single) followed, with the
crowd singing every word of the amazingly strange lyrics. It was an
amazing spectrum to see 100,000 people chanting "why do they always
send the poor" referring to the American policy of sending the poor
to fight their wars. Then a set of hits followed. We got "Aerials",
"Chop Suey", "Toxicity", "Cigaro", "war?" (a song dedicated to the
Armenian Genocide), and "Mr. Jack", "Forest".
Watching SOAD for the eighth time, six years after seeing them play
their debut gig in UK, supporting Slayer at the tiny London Astoria,
was an emotional experience. How these four boys have improved
musically is just incredible. They are a much tighter band now. John
Dolmaian has improved so much as a drummer in mixing Metal, R'n'B,
and Hip-Hop grooves. Singer Serj Tankian can now play piano and guitar
whilst hypnotising us with his beautiful voice. Shavo Odadjan is an
amazing and fast bass player.
The driving force behind this band, Daron Malekian (the guitarist),
who has written most of the songs and the lyrics on the latest SOAD
album is simply genius. I love the fact that he doesn't really obey
any musical rules when it comes to song writing or playing guitar,
and that is the definition of a true musician to me.
For me, the highlight of the set was when they played "Psycho"... it
is not my favourite SOAD song but the fact that Serj replaces some
of the lyrics with famous Armenian poetry "yes im anush Haiastani
arevaham barn em sirum" is just amazing. The 100,000 crowd looked
puzzled, since this is the only line during SOAD's set that they
don't recall having heard before.
SOAD bring the Download Festival 2005 to a beautiful end, knowing the
fact that their time is now... The crowd goes back to their tents
"Mezmorised" and "Hypnotised", talking about nothing but SOAD. I
drive home longing for a hot shower, wondering why weren't there any
Armenian flags in the crowd, and by now, kind of understanding why
that fat guy hugged me... coz we armoes are really special....