A 2nd with
@Yo Mama AND
@rockaction?
we have to go
Aerials, right guys?
That's a fine choice, man. One of "Aerials," "Toxicity," or "Chop Suey!" would represent the album probably the best it could be represented. Nice choice! Glad we share this one in common. It's an incredible piece of modern art. "Aerials" is a great song off a great album that frankly came at a difficult point in my life, and was there as sort of a literal lifesaver along with Mogwai's
Rock Action, which one might note to the left means a bit to me also but didn't make the one artist/one album cut. This one did. (You can't name yourself SOAD on a message board—rhymes with CHOAD or TOAD or too many easy others—heh).
127 (tie). Toxicity – System Of A Down (182 points)
The songs mentioned above, the singles, are the struts and shocks of this album, but there are other great songs on the album that really make it an
album. They are its absurdities. They are what normal listeners who tune in for the bigger songs think are its throwaways; the songs that make you bounce, shimmy, and go psycho while making you feel something other than metal dirge and they are . . . well . . . songs named "Bounce," "Shimmy," and "Psycho." Simple, one word titles that dot the album and make it as concise, concentrated, and focused as the music and lyrics.
Those songs in particular are songs where Serj Tankian (lead singer and co-lyricist) and Daron Malakian's (lead guitar and at least co-songwriter) songwriting functions to provoke and snap the listener back to attention from System Of A Down's more rhythmic and "normal" metal moments during which one might trance out if not careful (if the listener is really used to and likes metal, that is). In these moments, System Of A Down become more than artists—they become provocateurs, something Serj Tankian excels at like few ever.
And Serj Tankian is one of the most transcendent frontmen ever in rock n' roll. Transcendent frontmen are a rare jewel when they happen, and Serj definitely happened. His cadences; guttural yells and barks; his melodies; but especially, as in the case of "Aerials," his ascending-yet-hanging Middle Eastern melismas drawn from maqamat Hijaz modal scales** leave the listener with something unique and awe-inspiring. He's within the tradition of the Situationists; a socially conscious Iggy Pop without the self-abuse and glass cuts—the bridge from Perry Farrell's wildly abandoned, drug-addled libertinism of the early nineties to a frontman for the more socially conscious part of the aughts.
The musical part of the band, led by Daron Malakian along with John Dolmayan, drummer, and Shavo Odadjian, bassist, are at their finest musically in their breakdowns and time signature changes. That's really when the band soars with late '80s East Coast hardcore influences and inventiveness.
If you asked me to expound; I'd go on about "Chop Suey!" and the "Why have you forsaken me?" line, along with the mistake I made thinking the song was, frankly, about Jesus's crucifixion, which would give the world an apoplectic fit and always gives this listener chills regardless; but SOAD seems to sidestep the ultimate American and Western risk, which dents it just a touch (they couldn't even release the song with the real title, "Self-Righteous Suicide"). That said, you still can't catch me listening to it without going "Wait a minute . . . is he?" The resultant video was also forward thinking and as visually stunning as the lyrics were. The song, which they insist is about drug addiction and self-harm, also fits in its most abstract sense also.
Regardless, it's one of the best metal albums ever. Sabbath, Slayer, and System of A Down. The big three. Whereas the other two were concerned with defying Christianity in their original constructs, SOAD tells you to "Wake up!" both literally and emotionally. They do so in a broader sense than the other two, which doesn't limit them as much (Sabbath got away from that and tackled other issues, too, but that name let the listener know they were in for darkness).
I'm listening to
Toxicity now. It often gives me chills at certain parts of the record. One would have had to grow up taking metal earnestly and seriously as a kid, but if you did, it's challenging, revelatory, and yet comforting. The title track leaves one breathless. "Chop Suey!" is stuns. "Aerials," with its vocals, is nearly religious in its vocal delivery. It's spirit is straight from New York hardcore ca. '88, but it's written with a Middle Eastern influence and slowed down a bit. There are fewer aerial windmill kicks and more chances to contemplate simple mantras we should know and live. The perfect follow-up to the then-defunct underground Krishna-core scene.
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes, eternal prize
eta* sorry for the edits. Need to make this make sense as it was originally a note to BLOCKED_PUNT but became a little recap/blurb.
eta2** ask AI what Serj's "Middle Eastern-sounding and ascending-yet-hanging" vocal style on a track like "Aerials" is, and it'll sure as **** tell you. It'll give you the definition of "melisma" and give you the adjective "melismatic." It'll tell you about the maqamat modal system, which is when one uses "quarter tones or non-Western intervals that don’t resolve the way Western scales do—hence that 'hanging' feeling" often called the "Hijaz scale/Phrygian effect, which is often used to create that exotic, Eastern sound. It’s a Western approximation of what might be called maqam Hijaz. The scale has a raised third and flattened second, creating that haunting, serpentine effect." - ChatGPT 4.0.
eta3* It's coming, folks. Get in front of it.
We all like what we like. Much like I said in the tv thread (though we all know it's true) you are HEAVILY influenced by what you listened to/watched when we were teens/young adults. Those are our formulative years. I haven't been listening to as much music from this year and some of it was pretty good and some I diskliked.
