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May 11, 2005
System of a Down - Mesmerize: Album Review
System of a Down, Mesmerize (Sony, 2005)
System of a Down is the group of Armenian fellows known for such wild-ass songs as "Chop Suey" and "Chic n Stu." They were real big back in like 01-02, but then they disappeared for a while as their lead singer was out starting various political movements with the guitarist from Rage Against the Machine. I see this weekend they caused a bit of a stir by shouting out "Fuck yeah!" during a performance on Saturday Night Live, so that's good, I guess.
SOLDIER SIDE (INTRO)
An intro. Fuck the troops, by the way.
B.Y.O.B.
This might be my favorite System of a Down track yet, even though I haven't heard any of their other ones in quite some time. I like how you could almost take this as a regular (if completely wacky) party song until the end when they're like, "Why do they always have to send the poor!"
REVENGA
My bad in advance if all of these song titles aren't right. I copped this from a Chinese dude who swore up and down that this was a completely legit legal copy. The best thing about all of these songs is that you can hardly tell what they're going to be about until you hear them. This song starts out as if it's going to be one of those ones where Serj sings a buncha shit so fast that you can hardly understand him, but then it shifts all of a sudden into some wild, Russian-sounding shit.
RADIO/VIDEO
I wonder if the chorus to this one is at all in reference to that one Pavement song which I think was called "Stereo." Probably not. Hardly anybody remembers that shit anymore. This one kinda follows the same formula as "Revenga," but with even more of an emphasis on dynamic shifts. Like, they'll get really soft all of a sudden and then, preemptive no homo, they'll just explode in your ear.
CIGARO
This one is more of a straight forward, balls out (no homo) rawker. The lyrics seem to all be about cocks, so I might actually have to double no homo this one.
THIS COCAINE MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I'M ON THIS SONG
Again, when I copped this, O-Dub's grandma ensured me, or assured me or whatever that all of these track titles were correct. She's been known to be wrong in the past though, so my bad in advance if this song is actually called something else entirely.
VIOLENT PORNOGRAPHY
I remember I had some violent pornography back in the day where this guy would slap chicks around and then shove his cock down their throats so hard that they'd throw up on it. Like, that was pretty much the whole point of each episode, that the chick would actually vomit a little bit on the guy's cock. No homo.
QUESTION!
Honestly, this new album is kind of short on catchy songs compared to their old shit. These songs still have that System of a Down sound, which is cool, but where as Toxicity was pretty much nails all the way through, this is just like "B.Y.O.B." and then 10 other songs that are just OK.
SAD STATUE
Which is a shame, really, because we could use some real gully political bands right now. Supposedly, the dude from Soundgarden has told Tom Morello and Co. that they are no longer allowed to play any more political songs anymore, and they already kinda sucked anyway.
OLD SCHOOL HOLLYWOOD
I've yet to actually get what this one is about, but it's probably my favorite song on here other than "B.Y.O.B." It's got some real wild-ass electro flourishes and some other weird sound effects going on in addition to the usual SOAD craziness.
LOST IN HOLLYWOOD
Again, I'm sort of at a loss for the real meaning here (what's with the lyrics about smoking fags?), but this is not a bad way to end the album, on a more mellowed-out than a lot of the rest of this.
COMMENTS: This new System of a Down album is aiight, but it's really not coming close to seeing Toxicity. Steal this Album, IIRC, was sort of a b-sides compilation or some such, so it doesn't really count, but I recall it had some pretty good shit on it too. This album, by comparison just sounds like SOAD falling back on a lot of old formulas and not a lot of strong songwriting.
BEST TRACKS: "B.Y.O.B." "Violent Pornography" "Old School Hollywood"
Posted by Bol at 02:26 PM | Permalink
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