Sunday 3 April 2011

System of a Down - Steal This Album! (2002)

1. Chic 'n Stu
2. Innervision
3. Bubbles
4. Boom!
5. Nüguns
6. A.D.D.
7. Mr. Jack
8. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
9. 36
10. Pictures
11. Highway Song
12. F**k the System
13. Ego Brain
14. Thetawaves
15. Roulette
16. Streamline

Turn in the Thieves – 7,8/10

The follow-up to System of a Down’s breakthrough record Toxicity had an odd story to accompany its unique packaging, which was to mimic a burned disc. I won’t bother you with that tale, but I can assure you those who stole this record have now sinned even worse for Steal This Album! turns out even better than its predecessor. Since it was not supported by a tour, some people believe this to be a bunch of leftovers from the Toxicity sessions. It’s partly agreeable, for this album is not very coherent, but it’s mostly very disagreeable since this record contains some of the finest System tunes you’ll ever hear.

Demos of this album once surfed on the net as Toxicity II and that still left its marks on the final album. It literally picks up where Toxicity finished. It’s equally barbaric, primitive and heavy, yet also mean, political and thought out. Even the structure of the album shows similarity. Opener “Chic ‘n Stu” is as wacky and chaotic as “Prison Song” and “Innervision”, “Bubbles” and “Boom!” show equal amount of barbaric metal as “Needles”, “Deer Dance” and “Jet Pilot”. Then “Nüguns” parallels with “X”, and so on. If you’d mix up the two records, you wouldn’t tell which song is from which album production- and sound-wise. It really looks like they were trying to get that sound they got famous with one year ago.

The main difference is the amount of tracks on this record, which is a lot and which does mean a higher amount of filler tracks. Tracks like “Mr. Jack”, “Pictures”, “Highway Song” or “Thetawaves”, but also the very short “36” just don’t add a thing to the record and become sources of irritation for your ears. That is quite a lot. Luckily the other material is very strong and original. In particular the politically aggressive “A.D.D.” is very powerful, as well as the anthem “I-E-A-I-A-I-O”. Towards the end the songs start becoming a bit mellower but also a little flash-forward to the Mezmerize/Hypnotize records is being given in tracks like “Ego Brain” or “Streamline” where they tend to focus more on song structure and melody rather than the barbaric power of “A.D.D.”. What also adds to the flash-forward is the increasing presence of Daron Malakian’s voice next to Serj Tankian’s, which blend uniquely if you can bear Malakian’s sharp voice for so long. Near the end I find the wacky “F**k the System” and the ballad “Roulette” to be the highlights.

In the end, Steal This Album! may well be System of a Down’s finest moment if you reduce the amount of tracks to twelve. I recommend, however, not to steal this album but to buy in your local store if you love System of a Down or nu-metal.

Strongest tracks: “Chic ‘n Stu”, “A.D.D.”, “I-E-A-I-A-I-O” and “Roulette”.
Weakest tracks: “Pictures”, “Highway Song” and “Mr. Jack”.

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