Many are the bands that try to find themselves on a few albums before finding their way (when they find it). We watch them evolve like benevolent parents who admire their children's progress. And then there are the prodigies, those who know what they want to do from a very young age. System Of A Down is clearly part of this last category. You only have to listen to their eponymous first album to understand that the band always knew where they were going and above all gave themselves the means to achieve their goals.
Emerging in 1998 in an already crowded nu metal landscape, System Of A Down (SOAD) is an outsider with its experimental metal that many will classify as part of this movement but which is actually quite difficult to categorize. Close to Korn in a more delirious way and Slipknot in a less violent way, SOAD offers very personal tracks. Serj Tankian's vocals - which will be regularly assisted by guitarist Daron Malakian - is obviously a big part of it. Just like Mike Patton, Faith No More's chameleon and facetious singer, he plays with his voice, going from the low to the high notes in an instant as well as in clear voice as in screaming. His vocal panel seems limitless with improbable big gaps, being able to make the rabid chipmunk on the completely crazy 'Suggestions' (Peephole is not bad either in the kind), to growl on the very heavy 'Suite Pee' or being more pure even fragile on the formidable pseudo ballad 'Spiders'.
If having an excellent singer was part of the necessary elements for the success of the SOAD project, associating good musicians seemed to be as important. Although the technique is not the subject, one can appreciate the game of the various protagonists or at least the absence of weaknesses especially for a first album. Rhythmically in particular, the whole holds the road very well with a very fast drumming, certainly not particularly subtle with a very/too often open hi-hat but how to reproach it when one makes System Of A Down?
So what to expect if you discovered SOAD with "Toxicity" like 80% of the band's fans? No disorientation, the style being already well defined. Undoubtedly, this eponymous album sounds more unbridled and more raw than the following ones, and the alternations of brutal verses and calm choruses are less numerous. But we find again what makes the strength of this band who always knows how to skilfully slip these famous melodic sweetnesses, via a solo or a vocal line in a globally rough and brutal universe.
Finally, "System Of A Down" is almost equal to its successor. It is clearly not intended for those who reproach the band with too much eccentricity, preferring the more mainstream and radio-friendly compositions that the band will propose during its short career. If SOAD is still a young and belligerent band, its members already have this maturity and this absence of doubt which will lead them from the following album towards a huge success.