SmackMyBitchPlease 
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(8/15/02 9:15 am)
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Small SOAD artice in Entertainment Weekly
Eh, I posted this on the sony site and figured might as well post here in case any are interested..
Rock & Soul
As they balance partying with potent politics, System of a Down represent the contradictions of a post-Sept. 11 America -- an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly's Aug. 16, 2002.
Cover story by Evan Serpick
DOWN TIME Like the rest of the nation, System of a Down had a tough September 2001 -- despite their album hitting No. 1
How did a quartet of heady Armenian-American freaks from Los Angeles, with their prog-metal arias on everything from police brutality to coke-crazed groupies, go from egghead outcasts to Ozzfest headliners? For System of a Down -- like the rest of us -- everything changed last September....
When they released ''Toxicity'' (Columbia) on Sept. 4, 2001, the band was poised for success. Their eponymous debut had already won over scads of in-the-know metalheads back in 1999. Still, ''Chop Suey!'', the new album's potent first single, hit modern rock radio hard. How hard? On Sept. 3, influential L.A. rock station KROQ helped promote a free outdoor gig -- 4,000 or so of the band's local fans were expected. When 10,000 of L.A.'s rowdiest overwhelmed the police barricades, cops pulled System's plug, sparking a riot of shattered windows and smashed cars.
''It makes me feel very strange that we have that kind of power,'' says drummer John Dolmayan, 30, ''when people are destroying things because of the lack of our presence. I mean, who are we?''
One week later, the world had changed -- and ''Toxicity'' was the best-selling album in America. ''The whole Sept. 11 and System of a Down thing scares the f--- out of me,'' says guitarist Daron Malakian, 27. ''A lot of albums came out that week. But everybody talks about us.''
ALL SYSTEM GO Clockwise from top, Daron, Serj, John, and Shavo have been lauded as producing ''the sound of now'' on ''Toxicity''
Full of disparate music, from crunching riffs to delicate harmonies and equally disparate lyrics, from the politically charged to the absurd, ''Toxicity'' -- and System of a Down -- encapsulate all the contradictions of post-Sept. 11 America. Spin, in naming it Album of the Year, called ''Toxicity'' ''the sound of now.'' The CD's namesake second single sums up that sound: ''Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep: disorder, disorder, disorder.''
On Sept. 13, on the band's website, lead singer Serj Tankian, 34, posted an essay called ''Understanding Oil.'' Typical of his leftist politics but atypical of that day's discourse, it read, in part, ''the bombings are a reaction to existing injustices around the world, generally unseen to most Americans.'' Although the band removed it after two hours of angry e-mails and death threats, for many it permanently marked System as political radicals.
''A lot of people from the label were deeply concerned, to say the least. But I gotta do what I gotta do,'' says the defiant singer. ''You can't be afraid of the truth.''
''It was in poor taste to put it up that soon,'' says John, who, of everyone in System, is the least down with Serj's methods. ''It was ill-timed. But he wasn't thinking of hurting anyone's feelings, he was just doing his thing.''
MENTAL METAL Lead singer Tankian drives the band's politics
If Serj is this band's brain, bassist Shavo Odadjian, 27, its heart, and John its muscle, then Daron is its soul.
A metalhead by nature, Daron broadened his scope after playing in a series of unfulfilling bands. ''I got to know the Beatles and Bowie and all these great writers that kept it tight and simple,'' he says. ''I look at songs like roller-coaster rides. The best rides aren't five minutes long. They last a minute, but you go through such an emotional trip.''
As the band's primary musical creative force, Daron struggles with System's identity more than his mates. ''I want people to respect us as art, not as a product, not as a T-shirt,'' he says. ''I don't want people to one day say 'System of a Down' and roll their eyes.''
Despite a penchant for darkness and protest, it isn't all about toxicity. ''Serj talks about politics more,'' Daron says. ''But I don't want to lose touch with just being a fun band. We're a rock band, and as an artist, I don't want to get caught up in just being about politics.''
SOAD in Entertainment Weekly
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