diff --git a/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/index.md b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71741a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +--- +eleventyNavigation: + key: System of a Down + parent: Music Reviews +permalink: false +dateCreated: 2024-08-03 +dateChanged: 2024-08-03 +--- \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/system-of-a-down.json b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/system-of-a-down.json new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92b71d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/system-of-a-down.json @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +{ + "album_artist": "System of a Down" +} \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/toxicity.md b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/toxicity.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e75b668 --- /dev/null +++ b/_src/music-reviews/system-of-a-down/toxicity.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +--- +title: Toxicity +eleventyNavigation: + key: Toxicity + parent: System of a Down +album_name: Toxicity +album_tracks: 14 +album_length: 44 min 06 sec +album_year: 2001 +album_link: https://www.discogs.com/release/370466-System-Of-A-Down-Toxicity +album_link_provider: Discogs +dateCreated: 2024-08-03 +dateChanged: 2024-08-03 +--- + +This is my first System of a Down album that I have listened to in full. I already knew **Chop Suey!** and **Aerials / Arto**, but other than that, this is all new to me. + +Right out of the gate, **Prison Song** opens with an aggressive sounding drum pattern and a whispering Serj Tankian. What follows is exactly what one would expect from System of a Down: Political lyrics surrounded by shouty vocals, and aggressive riffs and drums. The riffs and drums aren't very complicated – as is the case with a lot of Nu Metal from that era (0-0-0-0-0) – but the combination with the rest of the arrangement makes it stick out. + +The transition to **Needles** is almost not noticeable, and the song that follows is sonically very similar to the previous one, but significantly less political. Or at least it isn't as obvious. + +**Deer Dance** starts with a very chuggy triplet-riff. Once again, the political lyrics are at the front of the song, being hard to miss. I particularly like the section around ~01:50min, as it stands out more compared to the rest of their stereotypical sound. + +**Jet Pilot** has a weird drum beat which I don't like throughout most of the song. It's the one that sounds like every Brazilian summer hit's background noise. Other than that, the track is just a very generic Nu Metal song, nothing more or less than that. + +Being one of three songs below 2min, **X** is hard to form an actual opinion on. It is however very much what one expects from a SOAD album, so that's good I suppose. + +The main attraction, and probably most famous Nu Metal song: **Chop Suey!**. I like it, but I couldn't listen to it too many times in a row. Table. + +**Bounce**, **Forest** and **ATWA** feel almost like filler tracks after **Chop Suey!**, mostly due to their short length (only **Forest** is longer than 3min) and outro-to-intro segments. Not in a bad way, but I could not see myself getting attached to such songs; something about them just doesn't feel special enough for that. + +Now is probably my favourite song on the entire album, **Science**. I can't pin-point what it is exactly that makes me like it more than any other song on Toxicity, but it just feels better to listen to in my opinion. + +The shortest track on the album is **Shimmy**, and it's just too short to like. I am a huge fan of long songs like Iron Maiden's **Rime of the Ancient Mariner**, or Triptykon's **Goetia**, but there just isn't enough song to this song to properly listen to it. + +The title track – **Toxicity** – is one I didn't realize I heard before writing this, but another one that I like. It's not as aggressive and shouty as most of what I heard of SOAD, and showcases Serj Tankian's voice very well. It's also almost 4min long, so I could see myself listening to it a lot. + +Though the bass part in the beginning of **Psycho** is cool, the very high noises that follow are not very pleasant to listen to. It's also weird that this high-energy song is between **Toxicity** and **Aerials / Arto**; in my opinion it should have been somewhere else on the album. Nonetheless I still like it as a song. + +**Aerials / Arto** is the album finisher and one of my all-time favourite SOAD songs. It's iconic, the person who introduced me to SOAD did so with this song, and it stands out in their discography and this album for it's uniqueness. It also fits well as an album closer. + +I personally didn't think I would enjoy the album very much and I was right in my assumption. There were a few gems, but all in all, I wouldn't listen to the whole album again, only select tracks.