System Of A Down
Hypnotize

THE REVIEW

Here; now everything is clear, even SOAD has embraced showbiz.

Now you might think: "This is one of those who hate System and just want to fill a page with free insults".... WRONG!!!!
This is intended instead as an analysis from a diehard fan who has seen his favorite band bow down to the will of the strong powers of music (and I also fear to the will of Rick Rubin).

But let's go in order: at first (speaking for myself) it was "Steal This Album!"; LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!!!
Purchased under friends' advice, I didn't regret it then and I don't regret it now. Riding the wave of enthusiasm, I search for the previous album, the legendary "Toxicity"; I find it, listen to it and conclude that this band drives me crazy and that until now, I had been a moron (musically speaking) wandering around collecting trash and discarding diamonds.

Happy as a clam, I decide to end my journey backward with the band's first album; "System Of A Down", truly surprised that a metalhead like me had never listened to this. With this excursion, we arrive at 2004; the year in which SOAD, in just 2 years, had ousted all competitors in my ideal music chart, conquering, with a certain gap, the undisputed first place.

So I eagerly await the rumors of an impending new System album (even though "Cigaro", released a few months before the album's publication, hadn't thrilled me that much) and here's when one fine day I learn from the radio that the band decided to split the new work in two parts (due to the "quality of all the tracks made," according to what Daron Malakian said, but I will have the opportunity to return to this point later) and that the first would be named "Mezmerize".

Fiery as a taliban, I rush to buy the new "pearl", but once opening the oyster, I find myself holding a BRICK, as if I were in Naples... (no offense to Neapolitans); the album is sometimes heavy (but I will talk about it more in detail in another review... maybe) and for some tracks useless (over time they will become "many tracks"...), yet despite this, I swallow the toad and decide to wait a year and trust the interviews, I heard: "we left the best for the next one...", "In Mezmerize we wanted to experiment..." (MAAAH...)

And here we are in November 2005; The very day the album is released (which had an even more enticing name than the previous one: "Hypnotize") I rush to a music store and barely have time for the clerk to open the box with the new arrivals before I find myself with the CD in hand and 20 euros less in my wallet (that day I thought well spent... what a fool).

I insert the disc into the player and here I get hit by "Attack", a "Prison Song" style song, which at first glance seems good to me (although nothing transcendental) and prompts me to keep listening. So I stumble upon "Dreaming", which frankly seems useless and incomplete. It goes a bit better with "Kill Rock 'n Roll"; very catchy (and I found it nice even in the live version available on the internet before the album's release) and "Hypnotize", a song that initially captivated me.

Somewhat reassured, I proceed with the listening, but fall into a DEEP MARIANAS TRENCH. Three tracks that send me into a panic (NOT AGAIN!!!!), from which I partially escape with the anxious "Holy Mountains" (which already then paled compared to a similar but not excellent song like "Mr. Jack") but in which I sank again after listening to the desolating "Vicinity Of Obscenity" and "She's Like Heroin".

Discouraged, I ended the listening experience with the last two tracks; "Lonely Day" (a song so sappy that even my sister liked it, an adept of Giorgia and Laura Pausini) and the acceptable "Soldier Side". Reaching the end of the CD, I felt what one feels when losing a loved one and not knowing how to react; I fell into the "IT'S NOT TRUE" phase, and when asked how I found it, I responded: "Beautiful, comparable at least to Steal This Album... I certainly didn't expect another Toxicity."

Look, I exited from this phase yesterday when faced with choosing which System songs to put on the iPod, I decided to be honest and only include the ones I considered important... and you know how it ended? OF THIS LAST DOUBLE "MASTERPIECE" I DIDN'T INCLUDE EVEN ONE!!! I PREFERRED TO CHOOSE STUFF LIKE "PHEEPOLE" OR "SHIMMY" RATHER THAN LYING TO MYSELF AND CONTINUING TO FORCE FEED MYSELF THAT JUNK, OTHER THAN "QUALITY OF ALL THE TRACKS", FOR THIS TRASH I WOULDN'T HAVE CHOSEN A DOUBLE BOX, BUT A NICE BIG DUMPSTER!!!

Having recovered my mental faculties, I then tried to find a reason for this double shipwreck, without being too biased: A) Too much space for Malakian (brilliant guitarist, good text writer, decent backing voice to the immense Talkian, but terrible lead singer!!!) B) Interference from Rubin for a more "commercial" work (but I don't quite believe it) C) Lack of drive and ideas (very probable).

At this point, I hope that the "Armenicans" I adored may take a reflective pause, hoping for a triumphant return (I don't want Toxicity, I don't want anything they've already done; I just want another wonderful chapter of their musical evolution), yet despite this, I cannot refrain from offering a mathematical tip to all System fans who haven't yet bought the double atrocity: MEZMERIZE+HYPNOTIZE=20€+20€ (what hypocrisy!!! and then they act like purists with the recycled paper of the covers; objectively the only thing that is salvaged from the album)=LONGING FOR SOAD (and maybe to commit suicide with a dose of Gigi D'Agostino) - MONEY IN THE WALLET + Desire to hunt for old albums (I consoled myself with the Nine Inch Nails).

Postscript: I apologize for the excessive length of the review and for the numerous parentheses, but it's my first time and I had to vent to someone, since I can't afford a psychologist.