Hard, loud, smart System of a Down mesmerizes live
by Ben Rayner, Toronto Star
The Toronto Star
September 2, 2005 Friday
The success of System of a Down defies all logic, and that’s why it
truly is something to be celebrated.
A pathologically brainy metal band with cabaret leanings spewing
cryptic, leftist rants and Zappa-esque gibberish and flaunting a proud
Middle Eastern heritage while from Los Angeles, all four members are
of Armenian descent is, by all logic, not supposed to be allowed to
exist in 21st-century America, let alone sell 10 million records and
command sold-out arena shows all over its home continent. You’d think
the band would be bound, hooded and handcuffed and on its way to
Guantanamo Bay, not debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart.
System’s rise is a true grassroots phenomenon, and one that makes a
hell of a lot more sense when one gets to engage with the quartet in
a live setting.
Make no mistake, the band’s four albums are superb slices of madcap,
dauntingly technical thrash subversion, even if it was only on this
year’s smash Mezmerize that its cartoonish pummelling really began
hardening into substantial songwriting. But onstage…onstage it all
becomes crystal clear why these unlikely geek-boy rock stars have
become unlikely geek-boy rock stars.
At the Air Canada Centre last night, System of a Down headlined
before more than 15,000 fans who somehow seemed to have deciphered
and memorized every single rapid-fire syllable tumbling out of
duelling singers Serj Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian’s mouths,
and who responded to convoluted, brain-bubbling metal suites such as
“Chop Suey!”, “Needles” and “Deer Dance” as if they were “Freebird.”
It’s the sort of thing that makes a critic want to weep with joy,
because this is a band that sits at the top of the contemporary rock
‘n’ roll heap despite seemingly doing everything in its power to
remain nothing more than a cultish commodity.
System’s unrelenting, speed-metal-derived heaviness is likely the
great unifying thread, as there’s a dearth of bands out there these
days that really hit that meaty, Satan-is-my-co-pilot low end that
made Metallica, Testament, Death Angel and Pantera such forces.
Yet what the operatically inclined Tankian and Malakian, along with the
nimble rhythm section of Slavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan do with that
heaviness – sometimes rubbery, sometimes molasses-thick and menacing,
sometimes galloping along at a pace beyond human comprehension is
entirely original and never boring. This despite the fact their set
list last night only really relented from a hair-raising pace for
the eerie near-hit “Aerials” and Malakian’s surprisingly sensitive
“Lost In Hollywood.” There are few bands on the touring trail today
as disciplined or as poised, yet you’re allowed to have much more
fun at a System of a Down show than you are at a Radiohead gig.
If Mesmerize’s sequel, Hypnotize previewed in a couple of spurts last
night comes anywhere near as hard as its predecessor, this band is
gonna rule the world.