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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

'System' are the Red Bull and Vodka of music

It is pretty exceptional to find an album today that truly rocks. "Hypnotize," the latest by System of a Down, is one of these albums, the kind that get better with every additional increment of volume. Whether it is used for personal head-banging or for a pre-finals spaz attack, "Hypnotize" will not disappoint.

As the second of a pair of albums, "Hypnotize" was released just six months after the moderately successful "Mezmerize." Whereas "Mezmerize" owed much of its success to "BYOB," a hard rocking political tirade that transformed into a sort of antiwar anthem, "Hypnotize" does not give the same weight to any given song. Despite the album's lack of potential future radio airtime, the first eight tracks tie together to form one long hit song. This rock opera style seems to be awakening an old trend, following the same concept as last year's Green Day's "American Idiot."

It is evident from the way that "Hypnotize" flows that the rock opera feel was well thought-out. The album has three distinct sections, the first beginning with the simple lyrics and frenzied rhythms that made System of a Down famous. The opening song, "Attack," does not disappoint, as it only builds up for about three and a half seconds before it unleashes quite possibly the fastest beat that drummer John Dolmayan has ever recorded.

The middle of "Hypnotize" is by far the deepest, most complex, and best overall section. Beginning with the one possible hit, the title track, this block of songs asks the relatively tough questions, all while adhering to the fast pace that was established before. In a bitter critique of the materialism of American society, the title track begins: "Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square / Was fashion the reason why they were there / They disguise it hypnotize it / Television made you buy it."

The primary risk taken in the middle section is its unprecedented amount of harmonization. Such a technique inevitably features more input from backup singer, and main song writer Daron Malakian, who has a much lighter style than frontman Serj Tankian. While this vocal complexity may detract from the album's heaviness for some, it certainly adds new depth and is quite an accomplishment for a band with such a defined sound.

The depth of the middle section does not end with the melodies. In the song "Tentative," writers Malakian and Tankian take what would typically seem like a slow song and give other parts of the track the same aggressive energy that is found earlier in the album. In mixing these two distinct moods, "Tentative" feels like a delicious dose of red bull and vodka, making your heart speed up and slow down at the same time.

The second section's musical brilliance extends through track eight, "Holy Mountains," which could (and should) have been the album's conclusion. Tracks nine through twelve seem more like hidden tracks then part of the same album, used primarily for experimentation.

Although System of a Down is well known for their quirkiness, "Vicinity of Obscenity" is just plain silly. It is hard to excuse these lyrics as a poetic expression of some drug binge, because, frankly, they sound like they were written by a five-year-old who ate too many Cocoa Puffs. It's possible that this five-year-old druggie was a creative writing persona for Tankian, but "Vicinity of Obscenity" simply takes away from the seriousness of his other songs.

Fortunately for "Hypnotize," the third section's isolation prevents it from ruining the rest of the album. Though true fans would rightly prefer a hard copy, a logical choice for everyone else would be to utilize iTunes to the fullest and just buy tracks one through eight. Though it is only a partial album, it is one long string of brilliance.

The differences in quality beg the question of why "Hypnotize" and "Mezmerize" were not combined into one normal-length masterpiece. It would certainly be feasible to combine the consistent eight tracks from "Hypnotize" with "Mezmerize"'s few hits. It seems that the band was swayed by the media coverage that accompanies the accomplishment of releasing two albums in the same year.

Overall, though, System of a Down continues to overstep such labels as "metal" and "nu-metal" and has put out some of the best rock and roll of the last decade.