System of a Down (album)

Infobox Album
Name = System of a Down
Type = studio
Artist = System of a Down


Released = June 30, 1998
Recorded = November 1997–March 1998
Sound City
Van Nuys, CA
Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research
Hollywood, CA
Genre = Alternative metal
Experimental metal
Length = 40:41
Label = American
Producer = Rick Rubin
System of a Down
Reviews =
* Allmusic rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=A6j77gjlr16ia link]
* "Kerrang!" rating|5|5
* Pitchfork Media 7.5/10 [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/22228-system-of-a-down link]
* Q rating|4|5
Last album = "Sugar E.P."
(1998)
This album = "System of a Down"
(1998)
Next album = "Limited Edition Tour CD"
(2000)
Misc = Singles
Name = System of a Down
Type = studio
single 1 = Sugar
single 1 date = 1998
single 2 = Spiders
single 2 date = 1999 Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternative covers
Type = studio


Lower caption = "Limited Edition" Extra album cover 2
Type = studio


Lower caption = Japanese edition

"System of a Down" is the eponymous debut album by System of a Down, first released in 1998. The album was certified gold by the RIAA on February 2, 2000. Two years later, after the success of "Toxicity", it was certified platinum.

Album information

The hand on the front belongs to the artwork of a poster designed by the artist John Heartfield for the Communist Party of Germany during the Third Reich. The text in the original poster is: "5 fingers has a hand! With these 5 grab the enemy!". This slogan inspired part of the text contained in the back of the System of a Down album: "The hand has five fingers, capable and powerful, with the ability to destroy as well as create". Later, it is written in bold letters: "Open your eyes, open your mouths, close your hands and make a fist".

Reception

The album differs greatly from System of a Down's next 4 albums, the music being most influenced by heavy metal.

"Q" magazine (10/01, p.152) - 4 stars out of 5 - "This remains an excellent starting point for this most curious and underrated of bands."

Track listing

tracklist
lyrics_credits = yes
music_credits = yes

title1 = Suite-Pee
lyrics1 = Tankian
music1 = Malakian
length1 = 2:32

title2 = Know
lyrics2 = Tankian
music2 = Malakian, Tankian, Odadjian
length2 = 2:56

title3 = Sugar
lyrics3 = Tankian
music3 = Malakian, Odadjian
length3 = 2:33

title4 = Suggestions
lyrics4 = Tankian
music4 = Malakian
length4 = 2:44

title5 = Spiders
lyrics5 = Tankian
music5 = Malakian
length5 = 3:35

title6 = DDevil
lyrics6 = Tankian
music6 = Malakian, Odadjian
length6 = 1:43

title7 = Soil
lyrics7 = Tankian
music7 = Malakian
length7 = 3:25

title8 = War?
lyrics8 = Tankian
music8 = Malakian
length8 = 2:40

title9 = Mind
lyrics9 = Tankian
music9 = Malakian, Tankian, Odadjian
length9 = 6:16

title10 = Peephole
lyrics10 = Tankian
music10 = Malakian
length10 = 4:04

title11 = CUBErt
lyrics11 = Tankian, Malakian
music11 = Malakian
length11 = 1:49

title12 = Darts
lyrics12 = Tankian
music12 = Malakian
length12 = 2:42

title13 = P.L.U.C.K. (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers)
lyrics13 = Tankian
music13 = Malakian
length13 = 3:37

title14 = Marmalade
note14 = Japanese Bonus Track
lyrics14 = Tankian
music14 = Malakian
length14 = 3:02

title15 = Störagéd
note15 = Japanese Bonus Track
lyrics15 = Tankian
music15 = Malakian
length15 = 1:19

tracklist
headline = "Limited Edition" bonus CD

title1 = Sugar
note1 = Live
length1 = 2:27

title2 = War?
note2 = Live
length2 = 2:48

title3 = Suite-Pee
note3 = Live
length3 = 2:58

title4 = Know
note4 = Live
length4 = 3:03

Personnel

* System of a Down:
** Daron Malakian – guitar, background vocals
** Serj Tankian – vocals, keyboard/samples
** Shavo Odadjian – bass
** John Dolmayan – drums

* Additional Musicians:
** Extra piano by Rick Rubin
** Extra noise by Eric "Statik" Anest

* Produced by Rick Rubin with System of a Down
* Mixed by D. Sardy
* Engineered by Sylvia Massy
* Engineer/assistant engineer: Greg Fidelman
* Additional recording/finishing touches: D.Sardy
* Assistant engineers: Sam Story, Nick Raskulinecz
* Assistant mixdown engineers: James Saez, Greg Gordon, Andy Haller
* Second assistant mixdown engineer: Bryan Davis
* Photography: Anthony Artiaga
* Cover art: John Heartfield
* Art direction: Frank Harkins & System of a Down
* A&R direction: Dino Paredes, Sam Wick
* Management: Velvet Hammer Management, David "Beno" Benveniste
* Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, CA
* Vocals and additional recordings at Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research, Hollywood, CA
* Mixed at Record Plant Studios, Hollywood, CA & Hollywood Sound, CA
* Mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Studios, New York, NY
* Music written by System of a Down

Footnotes

Before some of the lyrics in the booklet for this album, footnotes appear.

* Before "Spiders" is:

"Your thoughts, and dreams are no longer sacred, as they are exposed to a weapon known as remote viewing and monitoring."

* Before "DDevil" is:

"For those that control the central nervous system, control society, and the world."

* Before "War?" is:

"We first fought the heathens in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change."

* Before "Mind" is:

"Mind control technology has been used by the CIA since the 1950s as part of their non-lethal, covert weapons program."

* Before "Peephole" is:

"The February 18 edition of Britain's NEW SCIENTIST Magazine reports that the Geneva-based World Health Organization suppressed, under political pressure, a report which confirmed that marijuana is safer than either alcohol or tobacco."

* Before "Darts" is:

"Why do old societies hold the pantheon of 12 gods to be true, while modern societies generally have one God?"

* Before "P.L.U.C.K." is:

"System of a Down would like to dedicate this song to the memory of the 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated by the Turkish Government in 1915."

Booklet message

In the booklet, underneath the band member's photos, the text reads in all capitals:"Announce your anthems on the ceiling. We dance, annexed by power. Casual neckties embrace, the hungry hunger further, images rule through the media, commercial Orwellianism, producing unveiled icebergs, running transparent electrical cables, curving string ensembles, witnessed by hangings from flagpoles of souls avenged by Dr. Clock. Fresh paint, naked melting figures mixing the revolution against T.V. sentencing, at the hands of brutal men and their military business world. Let us instigate the revolt, down with the system!"

Chart performance

Album

ingles

References