System Of A Down
Hypnotize

First of all, hello everyone, my name is Bisius and before I start my review, I have to state three things: 1) I am a new user 2) I have never written reviews, not even for Scottex paper in my life 3) I am a huge fan of System of a Down.

Well, now that I've made these basic clarifications, let's move on to the album in question, "Hypnotize" to be precise. This album by the four Armenian-Los Angeles-based artists is the cousin of "Mezmerize" and was released just six months after the previous one. Unfortunately, while reading your reviews, I have come across not exactly positive comments about this double work by S.O.A.D. I actually didn't mind it, although there are a couple of very evident flaws that were completely absent in the first two albums, but I will return to this later. So, first of all, let's say that "Hypnotize" is an alternative metal album of just thirty-nine minutes. Considering that the price of the CD is about 20 euros, that already makes you raise an eyebrow, but don't worry: after this initial negative reaction, you'll be amazed by the incredible beauty of this album, and if you're true fans of S.O.A.D., you won't care about the venomous comments that you will read after my "release".

The first song is "Attack", and in my opinion, it's a composition that somewhat follows the style of "Prison Song" from "Toxicity," even if it might be a bit more eccentric (in the final part). Still, it's a song you shouldn't listen to before bed, because it's not exactly a lullaby, and those who've heard it know what I'm talking about. Don't be fooled by the title of the second song ("Dreaming", dreaming), because this is also a fairly rough song (with a beautiful distorted guitar opening the lyrics, in my opinion). However, the third song is absolutely not to be overrated: "Kill Rock'n'Roll" has a threatening title only, because otherwise, it's a song to start a mosh pit from the beginning to the end (oh well, it lasts 2 minutes and 27, so it's not like it's a big effort). And here we also arrive at the painful notes. The fourth song, "Hypnotize", selected as the first single, left me speechless with the initial guitar riff (truly hypnotic), but then my jaw literally dropped as the song progressed. I'd say here S.O.A.D. have given their worst with disgustingly pop melody (and who cares about the fake big guitars in the background) and towards its midpoint presents a "solo" that made me doubt for the second time the actual qualities of this album. Now you'll say: "But before you spoke so well and now you're also being a suck-up...", calm down guys, because I recovered very quickly thanks to yet another denunciation song by the System, titled "Stealing Society", which to be honest if one tries to recall it can't hum the melody because the unpredictability of S.O.A.D. changes the composition of the melody every thirty seconds.

I went crazy for the guitar riff between one verse and another (at the beginning, in the middle, and towards the end), five seconds that reveal the full power of a band that many of you define as "at the end," "decayed"... (bwahahahahahahah). The sixth song ("Tentative") for a moment reminded me of the opening of "Dreaming", but this time the lyrics go in a completely different direction, with an almost sorrowful chorus ("We're going down/ In a spiral to the ground/ No one / No one's gonna save us not") and a question that repeats anxiously halfway through the song ("Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?") before the final explosion. "U-Fig" is a song that opens with a delightful bass line by Shavo Odadjan and then continues with Serj Tankian opting for a solution initially shouted at the top of his lungs, then hummed in the chorus, and sighed mid-song. The use of a mandolin here is genius (I think) that fills the gap between one verse and another halfway through the text and suggests the decline of the vocal aggressiveness (which actually is not true). And here is one of the masterpieces of System of a Down's discography, song no. 8 titled "Holy Mountains" (sacred mountains, dedicated to the mountains bordering Turkey, in particular, the Ararat, which is where Moses received the Old Testament laws from God) that opens with a very slow and perfect melody for a death song, and then erupts into thirty seconds of rage, slows down again and then bursts into a furious passage with Daron Malakian thundering: "LIAR, KILLER, DEMON" and then "HONOR, MURDERER, SODOMIZER" towards the end (explicit denunciation against the evils of society) and finally the chorus with two voices ("Freedom, freedom, free, free"). Beautiful solo halfway through the song.

The composition no. 9 is the one I liked the most, it is titled "Vicinity Of Obscenity" and it is a crazy song with a capital C, where the Armenian-Los Angeles-based artists sing a series of nonsense one after the other just to create assonance with the schizophrenic background (which starts with a ticking sound). Now I make an appeal to DeBaser friends: what the hell does "Banana, banana, banana, banana, terracotta, banana, terracotta, terracotta, pie" mean? Well... Another painful note with the tenth song, "She's Like Heroin", in my opinion, a gap filler text, where Daron mumbles instead of singing and even the music kind of sucks. No. 11, the second single released ("Lonely Day") which I didn't dislike even though it's a damn slow song and there's no point in making the guitars roar because it's always slow and it doesn't change. Beautiful solo here too halfway through the song. The final composition, "Soldier Side", clearly resumes the very brief intro of "Mezmerize" and it's a truly moving song, still slow, but much more original and in my opinion more meaningful than "Lonely Day".

Well, now that I've reviewed all the songs (and I hope I haven't bored you, but I'm new to this, and let me know if there's anything wrong) I'll write what I didn't like about this album. Besides the economic issue (41.80 euros for 23 songs doesn't seem like much) I noticed with regret two other obvious flaws which actually highlight a slight regression of the band. First and foremost, the excessive protagonism of Daron Malakian, who gets more and more vocal parts in all the compositions and completely overshadows Serj Tankian. Between us, it wouldn't be necessarily negative, but Malakian can't sing, his voice is shabby, and where Tankian's angelic voice builds, he arrives with high notes worthy of Katia Ricciarelli ("Hypnotize") as if he had come with a Scania bulldozer to destroy Serj's sonic Taj Mahal. Over time it tires and sucks the energy out of you because besides not knowing how to sing he has an extremely monotonous voice, not like Tankian's which is able to switch from shouted to whispered or from a low part to a high part without problems in two seconds. The second is the extreme commercialization of S.O.A.D., a trend applied with "Mezmerize" and which continues unrelentingly with this album too. I'd say I've said it all, all that's left is to list the tracklist and the band's members. Now you have a new member of DeBaser and I hope a friend! Thank you for your patience in reading this my first review and if you feel like reading more of my reviews, I'll be here to write them.

Serj Tankian - Vocals and keyboard Daron Malakian - Vocals and electric guitar Shavo Odadjan - Bass John Dolmayan - Drums

Goodbye everyone, have a good evening and a great new school year!