System Of A Down

A metal alternative band from California “System Of A Down” was formed by two guys of Armenian decent, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian who first called the band Soil. They decided to name the band Victims of a Down after a poem Malakian wrote but then changed “Victims” to “System” because it is a stronger word and brings it to a whole and not just certain people. The band was first started in 1995 and was also joined by Shavo Odadjian and and Andy Khachaturian. In 1997 system was signed onto American Recordings by Rick Rubin and gained a lot of publicity through live shows and demos. Although Andy Khachaturian left the band and new drummer john Dolmayan . Three days before their first album release they played at Ozzfest, which was their first time playing for a huge crowd. And if you haven’t ever heard of the Ozzfest its pretty much the mother of all rock music festivals. After that they gained a lot of fans and more and more people listened to them. In 2001 System released their second album “Toxicity” and gained them a spot as a mainstream band that everyone knew. A lot of this was thanks to the radio because they always overplay songs, but in a bands case It really helps them get out their.  In 2002 they were asked to headline Ozzfest  and that same year they came out with the album “Steal this album!” which was not as good of a hit as “toxicity” but still sold good and kept them on the top of the music world.  In 2004 they came out with a two part album called “mesmerize/hypnotize”  which mesmerize was released in 2004 and hypnotize was 2005. Unfortunately two weeks before Mesmerize’s  release it was all leaked onto the internet and was a big bust for the band, mostly because it was supposed to be the most anticipated album of the year on an internet poll.  But all in all the album still sold over 500,000 in the week following its release.  Although now the band is on hatius which means they all go a different way for awhile to persue musical differences, System of a down have brough heavy music back into mainstream which hasn’t been done since the early ninties.