system of a down "mesmerize" / "hypnotize" POLL

hypnotize is by far the better album imho

v tempted to vote for "Stealing Society" which sounds sort of like a lost Dead Kennedys song and has the best Daron/Serj balance

hypnotize is by far the better album imho

― Simon H., Friday, March 8, 2019 9:35 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

absolutely impossible to say about an album with “lonely day”

God I haven't listened to this band in years. Going on memory, I'm tempted to go for Holy Mountains as it's uncharacteristically long and epic iirc

I also preferred Hypnotize despite Lonely Day lol

Yeah that and Vicinity of Obscenity are pretty bad, but the rest of the album kills.

lol i guess i've always felt alone preferring the crazy pop metal songs w harmonies on the first one

“violent pornography” is a weird song to get stuck in your head every few months and yet this is my life

― jolene club remix (BradNelson)

Yes it's a darn catchy chorus.

I think it's Hypnotize or Dreaming for me.

The first instrumental bridge section on Hypnotize with the fast balalaika sounding guitars is thrilling.

i can't answer the question in the op bc 1. hearing daron's voice without serj accompaniment is... no thanks 2. singles from the serj solo records were always super underwhelming

Loved the first two SOAD albums, and hated these two because there was so much Daron stuff. Haven't heard them since they were new.

Serj's solo albums are at least worth checking out. Daron's solo material is hot melted garbage.

if you dropped the "Hollywood" two-fer and the iffy penultimate trio on Hypnotize I reckon you're left with an album roughly on par with the other ones

feel like i agree with that though iirc i like the gonzoness of "old school hollywood"

i need to revisit these already

Tony Danza waits in line!

I prob gotta go with "Kill Rock and Roll" here but "Revenga" and "This Cocaine" are v tight runner-ups

"Lost in Hollywood" is a pretty song actually, it's just sunk by Daron's boring/awful lyrics

also when he croons lead he sounds a bit like...Trey Parker

(actually every other song in the great run from "Dreaming" to "Tentative" is a tight runner-up xxp)

yeah "Tentative" is a great deep cut, awesome groove, haunting chorus, feels like a lost song from the s/t

hypnotize is the best song ever for singing along to in the car. i sing it to myself at least weekly when i pick up my kids from school....

iimmmm juuuuust sitttttin iiiin myyyy carrrrr and waaaaiting for my KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDS

etc

serj's voice is just outrageously fun to (try to) imitate

Question! is in contention with Hypnotize for my pick here.

love the trick they pull on that one's last chorus, speeding up the music but switching the vocals to half-time

for sure, they are masters of that. they do it on both of those tracks I think.

One of the singles, I never bought either of these unlike Toxicity or Steal This Album. might honestly vote for B.Y.O.B., sorry.

I did go to one of their concerts on this tour, summer 2005. it was my second concert ever. I went for The Mars Volta, and wanted to stay for some of SOAD but my dad wanted to leave.

this fucking terrible band called Bad Acid Trip opened for TMV

All of these songs, and it'll still be 'B.Y.O.B.' in a landslide.

when these records came out my mom really responded to "byob" for some reason? she still really likes this band

I was really startled when I first heard the club mix for 'b.y.o.b.'

the thing that's so annoying to me about Daron promoting himself to co-lead singer or whatever is that his voice is SO well-suited to acting as accompaniment for Serj. I'd even say his backing vocals are some of the best in metal/alt-rock/whatever.

otm

I do find it rather endearing that their unwavering commitment to democracy is what has apparently kept them from making any new music. they're all too nice to be tyrants, apparently. it's weirdly wholesome!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Gonna vote "Hypnotize," what a jam

sticking with "Stealing Society"

ok finally got around to these and uh maybe i'm voting for "revenga"???

it's in the making baby
aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaa

Gonna vote "Hypnotize," what a jam

― ebro the letter (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, March 18, 2019 5:09 PM (eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is where i settled

goddammit "violent pornography" is stuck in my head again

the harmonies on "question!" kill me

the lyrics of "lost in hollywood" are godawful but i really like the song

well i'm glad hypnotize is finally clicking with me... i don't know how many years later, don't tell me

"dreaming" is fucking CRAZY

John Dolmayan doesn't get namechecked enough but he's doing a little of everything on these albums

what was WRONG with me

Well tbf it does fall apart near the end. "Soldier Side" is gorgeous though

i guess i just listened to mesmerize way too much when it came out and couldn't absorb any new soad? i remember "dreaming" and "kill rock & roll" but didn't respond to their hooks at all idk why

ugh i keep forgetting it's technically mezmerize

hm yeah wtf happens to this album after "holy mountains"

before that and including was basically toxicity quality and now they're selling ass for heroin banana terracotta pie

it's fine i've realized after these last 800 posts that this is still a really good double album

It's wild that their totemic Armenian genocide song, presumably so close to their hearts, is followed by....that

gonna go with my heart and vote for "dreaming"

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Intro voters, show thyselves (I really should have just excluded it to cut down on confusion)

Pretty sure I ended up going for Question!

Anyway what this poll really tells me is that SOAD lost all/most of their cultural cachet, which is really too bad