System of a Down -- Toxicity

9/10

Anyone in the next room from someone listening to System of a Down in late 2001 was likely to yell, "Who is that?!" System of a Down's breakout sophomore album, Toxicity, was released in the fall of 2001. So was P.O.D.'s Satellite, another album that got lumped into the nu-metal genre, but which transcended that tag. Deftones' White Pony, Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory and Meteora, Slipknot's Vol.3, Demon Hunter's first couple of albums, Sevendust's Animosity, even guilty pleasures like Limp Bizkit's...well, I'm not gonna say the name of the that one, but all these albums were released either directly before or during my time in college, so I'll always have a fondness for this kind of music. In my honest opinion, I think a negative Boomer reaction in the media initiated the anti-nu metal groupthink that also came from that time period--smug two and three-star Rolling Stone magazine reviews written by middle-aged men whose subtext was essentially, "This doesn't sound like the music I liked in the 60's and 70's!" System of Down was fortunate to receive some high praise for Toxicity, insanely smug "7/10" Rolling Stone review not withstanding. The praise was well deserved.
Toxicity starts with a single, distorted note, before building building to a thrashy riff, then a heavy groove. The opener, "Prison Song," only gives the listener a hint of what they're in for, Serj Tankian's urgent vocals building up to the line, and this is word-for-word, "All research and successful drug policy shows that treatment should be increased/and law enforcement decreased/while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences." It just rolls off the tongue, and leads to a couplet of which I always imagine Tankian could change the first half to "Thank you for coming to our show, we're System of a Down," when they're playing live: "Utilizing drugs to pay for secret wars around the world/drugs become your global policy, now you police the globe." So now it's immediately apparent that System of a Down are a band who are about something, though what they're about musically, outside of heavy and energetic, isn't more clear until the second track, "Needles."
"Needles" begins similarly to "Prison Song," until the higher vocals of guitarist, Daron Malakian, start to seep through. Tankian has a wavering low tenor/high baritone, but Malakian
is more of a countertenor. Malakian takes over the vocals in the dark, groovy jazzy bridge, itself a musical surprise, before Tankian comes in and the two harmonize for the first time. Their harmonization is a glorious sound, as if their unique voices have been made for each other, waiting to join all this time.
The band continue with this more musically progressive bent into "Deer Dance," fusing heaviness with a more complex sound, greatly enhanced by John Dolmayan's skippy drum playing. His drums are mic'd perfectly, and as he bounces from groove, to blast beat, to breakdown, it's nearly impossible to keep still. The band continue with a more straightforward heavy bent for several tracks (and explore the Armenian genocide, a subject extremely close-to-home for this Armenian American band), building up to their perhaps most well-known and powerful song, "Chop Suey!"
"Chop Suey!"begins with Malakian exploring Armenian sounds with his guitars, the intro going more frantic before the beserk start/stop mayhem of the verse. Surprisingly, this insanity leads to a smooth chorus, the structure repeating before a frenzied, desperate bridge, leading to an explosion of sound in the final chorus, with Tankian and Malakian hitting a huge harmony. The lyrics are ponderous and borderline nonsensical, but the passion and emotion are as clear as day--a juxtaposing paradox the band have essentially trademarked.

For the album's second half, System continue in this pattern, sometimes straightforward heavy, but then veering into Tankian and Malakan's strangely beautiful harmonies, or some great quiet-to-loud dynamics, or full-on traditional Armenian instrumentation. The latter element is exemplified on the bridge of "Science," and most poignantly, on the album's outro, "Arto," which is found in the final minutes of "Aerials," and features Arto Tunçboyacıyan in an adaptation of a traditional Armenian hymn.
While I do wish the straightforward moments were a little less plentiful, they detract little from the Toxicity experience. The album has an excellent flow, climaxing with the jaw-dropping rhythmic changes of the title track, and taking off to a higher spiritual place with the outro to "Psycho," the beautiful "Aerials," and the aforementioned "Arto," which is now listed as its own track on some streaming services.
Perhaps because of the time and setting in which I heard them, Toxicity, along with some of the albums I mentioned in the first paragraph, will always be landmarks for me in a way, reminders of a time of expanding personal freedom and interests. Now, people my age are following in the Boomers' critical footsteps. The Youtube comments section for the songs on these album can all generally be boiled down to one sentiment: they don't make good music like this anymore.

Also, I bought this on CD back in January of 2003...but now I have the vinyl, too! I'm trying to get all of those early '00s "alternative metal" albums on vinyl.

2001 American Recordings/Columbia Records
1. Prison Song 3:21
2. Needles 3:12
3. Deer Dance 2:55
4. Jet Pilot 2:05
5. X 1:57
6. Chop Suey! 3:30
7. Bounce 1:54
8. Forest" 4:02
9. ATWA 2:56
10. Science 2:42
11. Shimmy 1:50
12. Toxicity 3:40
13. Psycho 3:48
14. Aerials 6:11