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System plays blistering test-market set

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  • System plays blistering test-market set

    System plays blistering test-market set
    BY JIM DEROGATIS Pop Music Critic Advertisement

    Chicago Sun-Times, IL
    May 5 2005

    "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test," guitarist Daron Malakian
    said.

    With a vocoder transforming his words into a robotic drone, Malakian's
    announcement opened and closed the ferocious 75-minute set that System
    of a Down played Tuesday night at Metro. But a test is exactly what
    this rare small-club gig was.

    Since its self-titled debut in 1998, the Los Angeles progressive-metal
    quartet has risen to the level of an arena headliner while maintaining
    its position as one of the strangest and most inventive bands in
    hard rock. The Metro show was one of 10 club gigs intended to prime
    the promotional pump -- or test the market, if you prefer -- as the
    group gears up for the May 17 release of its third album. (Coldplay
    is doing the same thing at Metro on Friday.)

    System of a Down hasn't been prolific on the recorded front.
    "Mezmerize/Hypnotize" -- which is considered a double album, though
    the second disc won't be issued until the fall -- is its first release
    since 2001's "Toxicity." Yet while its fans are hungry for new music,
    and the whole purpose of this club tour is to generate excitement
    for it, the group played hardly any fresh material at Metro.

    Whether the band thought its fans would be unfamiliar with the new
    songs -- unlikely, since many have already downloaded the disc --
    or it's paranoid about its music leaking in advance of the release --
    a lost cause, since it already has -- System of a Down played it safe
    and stuck to old favorites such as "Chop Suey," "Spiders," "Mr. Jack"
    and "Sugar," which we've been hearing in concert for years now.

    Of course, "playing it safe" is a relative term for a group as
    idiosyncratic as this one. Malakian, vocalist Serj Tankian, bassist
    Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan first came together at
    an Armenian Christian school a decade ago. They remain dedicated to
    informing the world about the Turkish genocide of 1.5 million Armenians
    in 1915 -- the first gig of this club tour was at California's annual
    Sunday's Souls benefit for that cause last week -- and their music
    is peppered with radical political philosophizing somewhere to the
    left of Noam Chomsky and Rage Against the Machine.

    System of a Down is capable of bursts of pile-driver thrash as intense
    as any hard-core band and eruptions of shred guitar and double-bass
    drumming as punishing as the best death metal bands. But these are
    interspersed with beautiful, pseudopsychedelic arena-rock hooks,
    passages of traditional Middle Eastern folk music and flourishes of
    progressive-rock virtuosity that could be lifted from the weirdest
    pages of the Frank Zappa songbook.

    Through it all, Tankian conjured a rock 'n' roll version of the
    turn-of-the-century anarchist standing on a soapbox advocating
    revolution as the rhythm section shifted gears faster than the winning
    driver at the Indy 500.

    Malakian is the group's secret weapon, however. The least attractive of
    an already ugly bunch, the diminutive, balding but still long-haired
    guitarist often sounded as if he were playing three parts at once --
    delivering rhythm, lead and outer space noise -- while simultaneously
    adding the sweeter harmonies to the choruses (Tankian can't actually
    sing, but Malakian can) and the occasional "Voice of Satan" deep
    bass growl.

    Arena rock doesn't get any more inspired than this. "Mezmerize/
    Hypnotize" is certain to keep the band in that forum -- the group has
    announced a coming tour with fellow new-wave prog-rockers the Mars
    Volta -- and despite a fiasco with ticket sales that shut many of the
    faithful out of the show, the Metro gig was a special intimate treat.
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