I like to rock out. I gobble all popular music up like an XBOX playing kid eats Doritos.
I have touted bands like U2 and Social Distortion here on my blog for the last 6 months while slamming the myths of Liberalism with every political post. So am I entirely off base for loving the new System of a Down album: Mezmerize even with the obligatory Tipper Sticker informing all of us that the album contains bad words.
This thing is a two parter with a second disk due in 6 months. Just before Christmas. Smart marketing.
There are many genres of popular music. There's your sappy power pop of Green Day and Blink182, your soaring song writing of U2 and REM, your speed metal from old Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax and your punk attitude of Suicidal Tendencies and NOFX. So what happens when wrap all this up with some heavy Eastern Europe classical music influence? You get this band.
Whatever political message they are carrying, it is lost on me. I am not into it, nor do I advocate for it. So far left I couldn't fathom it. What will I say is that Mezmerize is fantastic. I loved the last album Toxicity.
Mezmerize opens somber with Soldier Side and then hammers into BYOB. I think I am more into the complexity of the syllables singer Serj Tankian can sandwich into a few bars of music at around 200 beats per minute. This band grabs you throughout the album and shakes you around like a rabid dog, then gives you a sweet melody like "Everybody's going to the party have a real good time". BYOB doesn't let up until your cd player changes tracks to Revenga and later into Cigaro. Cigaro's got your first glance of that Slavic-type melody with its runs on the guitar and massive interval jumps in the vocal line.
System of a Down later on seems to make fun of popular music and celebrity, while being the most popular metal band of the moment with Radio/Video with it's repeating line " hey man, look at me I'm on the radio". In this song, I wonder what happens if this band wanted to slow down and write something acoustic. They tease you very well with the song Question. However in Radio/Video the song breaks down into some very unique moments with great harmonies. Daron and Serj do some great tracking of their voices to make the harmonies flow all while carrying on with their Armenian synchopated rhythms.
Through out the album, there is shear sonic energy laced with turbo charged angst. And then these moments happen that break out into incredible melodies. It makes me wonder how long it takes to make all this happen in the studio. Overall a great album, a lot of great moments like Violent Pornography, Old School Hollywood and Revenga that will definately remind you of the great songs on their last album Toxicity.
Good Stuff! I look forward to seeing them live again. There'll be a Republican in the pit!!! Look Out!!
I have touted bands like U2 and Social Distortion here on my blog for the last 6 months while slamming the myths of Liberalism with every political post. So am I entirely off base for loving the new System of a Down album: Mezmerize even with the obligatory Tipper Sticker informing all of us that the album contains bad words.
This thing is a two parter with a second disk due in 6 months. Just before Christmas. Smart marketing.
There are many genres of popular music. There's your sappy power pop of Green Day and Blink182, your soaring song writing of U2 and REM, your speed metal from old Metallica, Pantera and Anthrax and your punk attitude of Suicidal Tendencies and NOFX. So what happens when wrap all this up with some heavy Eastern Europe classical music influence? You get this band.
Whatever political message they are carrying, it is lost on me. I am not into it, nor do I advocate for it. So far left I couldn't fathom it. What will I say is that Mezmerize is fantastic. I loved the last album Toxicity.
Mezmerize opens somber with Soldier Side and then hammers into BYOB. I think I am more into the complexity of the syllables singer Serj Tankian can sandwich into a few bars of music at around 200 beats per minute. This band grabs you throughout the album and shakes you around like a rabid dog, then gives you a sweet melody like "Everybody's going to the party have a real good time". BYOB doesn't let up until your cd player changes tracks to Revenga and later into Cigaro. Cigaro's got your first glance of that Slavic-type melody with its runs on the guitar and massive interval jumps in the vocal line.
System of a Down later on seems to make fun of popular music and celebrity, while being the most popular metal band of the moment with Radio/Video with it's repeating line " hey man, look at me I'm on the radio". In this song, I wonder what happens if this band wanted to slow down and write something acoustic. They tease you very well with the song Question. However in Radio/Video the song breaks down into some very unique moments with great harmonies. Daron and Serj do some great tracking of their voices to make the harmonies flow all while carrying on with their Armenian synchopated rhythms.
Through out the album, there is shear sonic energy laced with turbo charged angst. And then these moments happen that break out into incredible melodies. It makes me wonder how long it takes to make all this happen in the studio. Overall a great album, a lot of great moments like Violent Pornography, Old School Hollywood and Revenga that will definately remind you of the great songs on their last album Toxicity.
Good Stuff! I look forward to seeing them live again. There'll be a Republican in the pit!!! Look Out!!
No comments:
Post a Comment