Drowned In Sound, UK
May 28 2005
Mezmerize by System Of A Down on American Recordings
Release date: 16th May 2005 More and more I’m convinced that, rather
than being the crazy moshing half brother of Rage Against The
Machine, System Of A Down are actually not a metal band at all, but
rather the sole heirs of The Dead Kennedys’ estate. On ‘Mezmerize’,
the first part of this years double release (‘Hypnotize’ will be
released in the autumn), there’s that same familiar psychotic energy
and enthusiasm that manages to add a blitz of colour to their records
even when they’re being as dark as hell, black comedy like Slim
Pickens cowboy hick air force captain riding the bomb to oblivion in
‘Dr.Strangelove’. It does not conform.
It’s nice when the album runs from the quiet minor melancholy intro,
‘Soldier Side’, into frenetic supercharged ‘Maiden territory for the
Gulf War tirade ‘B.Y.O.B.’, and also nice when that song empties out
into a hooky chorus that could almost be the Backstreet Boys bent
over a big riff. On ‘Revenga’, Serj Tankian switches between an
almost unintelligibly fast vocal and melancholy armenian folk meets
Fugazi. Loved the epic Devin Townsend-ish middle eight. ‘Cigaro’,
with it’s cock fixation, estranges me a bit. Though the point of the
song appears to be to parody male posturing, it steers a little too
close to that which it mocks.
I don’t know if it’s an attempt to force their songs into being more
‘pop’, but the band have developed a habit of overly repeating a
lyric in the hope that it sticks. In theory that’s fine, but in this
case, some of the phrases they choose to repeat aren’t particularly
memorable and the repetition can be irritating and clumsy (like the
chorus to ‘Radio/Video’)…. Good thing they never stick in one place
long enough to get boring and are still expert at setting verses to
some rhythm you didn’t expect. (That track dives in to a few
different reggae feels and finally settles on something like a
wedding dance!). ‘This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m On This Song’
is very much like an modern Dead Kennedys song might sound, fast and
furious, while ‘Violent Pornography’ begins like a bit of a nursery
rhyme. Nice chorus, but I’m not sure if I really get the lyrics. I
really liked the way ‘Question!’ was put together… it’s different,
and difficult to describe. ‘Sad Statue’ and ‘Old School Hollywood’
are both decent enough SOAD fare, but make sure you wait for the last
song!
I think ‘Lost In Hollywood’, a bitter blast at it’s phony
manipulative flipside, is the band’s ‘Under The Bridge’. A great
ballad, a great tune and a great song. Many lighters will sway from
side to side to it, and many fans will sing along, but I wonder if
the caustic words may (sadly) keep it off the daytime playlist.
The minor key melodies and armenian folk side of Daron Malakian’s
writing are much more in evidence on ‘Mezmerize’ than on their
previous albums…imagine Anthrax and the Cardiacs doing a soundtrack
for ‘Fiddler On The Roof’, the eastern folk melodies playing
Dr.Jekyll to the heavy riffing staccato Hyde. Perhaps they’re
settling into their identity…Fast and furious often, melodic often,
powerful often, diverse always. It very occasionally loses me, but on
the whole, the album is perfect for anyone with a low attention span.
If played in isolation, most of the songs would catch the first time
listener because System of A Down still sound very different from
anyone else (remember what it was like hearing ‘Chop Suey!!!’ on
Xfm), but ‘Mezmerize’is primarily an album that I would almost always
play from front to back, since it provides a bit of a journey for the
listener (on the back of a scooter going the wrong way down a one way
street in Naples in rush hour). Worth mentioning the excellent inner
artwork, and specifically the abstract band pictures.
Three years after their brilliant 1998 debut,’System Of A Down’, came
the album that propelled the band into many people’s
consciousness,’Toxicity’, and four years later here we are with
another excellent record, ‘Mezmerize’. It’s nice to see them back,
and I hope the forthcoming ‘Hypnotize’ is as good.