807 System of a Down - Toxicity (2001)

Studio Album - Metal

About the Act:

System of a Down are a metal band from California, who combine Eastern European elements into heavy metal and are known for their social commentary and political songs. They have existed since 1994, with a break between 2006 and 2010, and have had a mostly stable line-up. They have had 5 studio albums in that time, three of which debuted at no 1 in America. They have sold a lot of records.

About the Album:

This was the band's second album.

My History with this Album:

In the late 90s, early 2000s, I came across System of a Down while watching alternative MTV channels with my flatmate and liked them. Coincidentally, if you have been reading these reviews in chorological order this may sound like deja vu, because the same was true in the last two reviews.  I got a copy of this album at some point but I think maybe only listened to it once.

Review:

Metal has taken a rather strange course since the mid-90s when certain elements seemed to re-invent metal almost completely. This album incorporates some, but not all of those elements. 

For a start there is the extreme distorted chuggy sound produced by the guitars, apparently this album was mostly recorded using "drop-C" tuning, lower than normal guitars. This has very thick distortion, bass and guitars following the same riffs and it sounds like a stuttering growl. Lead guitar solos have almost disappeared in this exploration of texture. Not that all of the music is this heavy or metal, and there are gentler parts, including acoustic guitars.

Next there are the drums, and in particular the use of double bass-drums, allowing much faster, almost rolls of bass drums. This is combined with very crisp and often complex drum patterns. Timing is very important and tight.

Vocally, in metal in general, the screaming and growling that is almost undecipherable (called "unclean vocals") started to become a things. That does exist on this album, but it is in the minority, there are only small snatches of it. Some of the vocals are more normally shouted, some are sung, and there is the occasional percussive shout like Eastern Erupean fast punky brassy rock (honestly, I don't know how better to describe this, everything stops for a very brief gap and people shout "hey" or something like - check out Zdob Si Zdub). Sometimes the lyrics are fast and tripped off the tongue, almost like fast cabaret, kind of dramatic and slightly comic.

Harmonically, metal seems to have diverted from mainstream music, and either gone into some area I don't understand (like "Modal" scales) or almost randomised, but with a preponderance of semitones and diminished fifths (sometimes known as "The Devil's Interval). This album does a little of that, but actually more embraces an Eastern European heritage, with some scales that are more typical of that kind of music. There are also uses of ethnic instruments.

Thematically, a lot of metal seems to have gone down a shock and horror route (nothing new to be honest), however System of a Down have gone more for social commentary and politics, sometimes with subtlety and double-meanings, but sometimes almost comically on the nose. The opening track of the album is about prison overcrowding and mandatory minimum sentencing and more, and is kind of kitsch. In fact the first few tracks seem to be semi-comic in approach, probably not intentionally, but... oh I can't really put my finger on it. Then it sort of settles in, or my listening settles in, about at track 6 - chop suey. The end result seems to manage two tones at once, still semi-comic (this is mostly because of the Eastern European elements), but sad and somewhat dark at the same time.

By the time I got to the end, both times I listened through, I had developed a kind of respect for it. Musically it's pretty competent, and I like the ethnic elements. It's refreshing to have metal that isn't really objectionable when you can make out the lyrics (which you mostly can on this album). I think it's fair to say that if you don't like metal then you are unlikely to like this, but if you like the occasional metal hit, this is somewhat left-field of most and curious and interesting.

7.1/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6jWde94ln40epKIQCd8XUh

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLUjGmfRS94

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxicity_(album)