System of a Down - Toxicity (2001)

1. Prison Song
2. Needles
3. Deer Dance
4. Jet Pilot
5. X
6. Chop Suey!
7. Bounce
8. Forest
9. ATWA
10. Science
11. Shimmy
12. Toxicity
13. Psycho
14. Aerials

Political, Wacky and Heavy – 7,6/10

System Of A Down really need no introduction, yet I will still give one. Founded in the nineties, they did not need long to convince the world they were one of the most relevant nu-metal bands from their time. The very heavy sound of the band sometimes even resembling barbaric wardances combined with the often political lyrics of frontman Serj Tankian, but melted into one insane, wacky formula by guitarist and main songwriter Daron Malakian, has laid a powerful mark upon the music business with their self-titled debut album from 1998. It was heavy as hell, made a clear political statement and was very, very original. Its follow-up, Toxicity, was, however, the main breakthrough for the band, both critically and commercially.

Yes, this was commercially successful indeed, especially with the two hits “Toxicity” and “Chop Suey!”. The big change from their debut is immediately noticeable: it’s less heavy. How else can you make hits of course? Still, this is a heavy record and even primitive at times. Take for example the main riff of “Prison Song” or “Deer Dance”; they clearly show the more-is-less attitude of the band and the production adds to that a very back-to-basic feel, especially in combination with Tankian’s barbaric shouts. But it’s all less primitive than the debut album still, mostly due to the clearer production by the famous Rick Rubin. They clearly commercialized the sound they established on the debut album, but still tried to keep the essence of that sound intact, which succeeded quite well and made the sound more accessible. Not to mention Tankian’s grunts have decreased notably. Only “Prison Song” features those grunts and they sound more like someone left the window open on a windy day. What stays the same from the debut is the wacky song structures, the chaotic variation of lots of different themes all stuck together in a two- or three-minute song.

With “Prison Song”, the band creates the perfect ambience for the album: heavy, aggressive, crazy, wacky, and of course topped with a spicy political theme. The wacky structure of this track and the merciless heaviness is the true charm of Toxicity’s strong opening phase. “Needles”, “Deer Dance”, “Jet Pilot” and “X” all plainly exist just to pound your brains out with simple, primitive riffs and mad shouts, but somewhere also with sheer genius. Middle-eastern melodies like those on “Deer Dance” or “Jet Pilot” give more credit to the band’s Armenian origin. “Chop Suey!” is righteously a hit with its extremely catchy chord progression, speedy lyrics and of course great chorus. In between the heaviness of this record so far, it’s really refreshing to hear gentler verses that actually sound very well. It’s the proof this band can do more than just make your head bang. Later on “Forest” is a relatively lengthy track with its four-minute length. Its vocal melodies are very praiseworthy as this song sounds close to being an epic. Later on we get pounded once more with “Shimmy”, the popular “Toxicity” and “Psycho”, which has a title that suits the track rather well. “Aerials” closes the album rather well with a threatening attempt at going epic.

You may have noticed I skipped a few tracks. That was not by accident. “Bounce” is a short track with nonsense lyrics that I find hard to enjoy as it doesn’t really have a head and tail to it and seems just plain noise. “ATWA” or “Science” really fail to deliver as well as they have gone by so many times and still I have not noticed a hook or a catchy fragment on those tracks. In a defined music style as the one System Of A Down has, this is essential. Every song has to matter or else the album has a sleepy moment. The biggest downside of this, rather good nu-metal record is not the lack of good tracks. No, quite the contrary. The main problem is the lack of variation and the feeling the follow-up to this album should be really special and new again. Steal This Album! is a really fine album, but doesn’t add much new to the sound established on Toxicity and therefore they will always belong together.

In short, Toxicity is quite a good album. Though lack of variety and repetitive moments may occur, there are not much weak tracks and especially in the first half it’s extremely useful for wrecking someone’s mind. This album is absolutely essential to fans of the nu-metal genre.

Strongest tracks: “Prison Song”, “Deer Dance”, “Chop Suey!” and “Toxicity”.
Weakest tracks: “Bounce”, “ATWA” and “Science”.