Line #63 YMMV/SystemOfADown


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2	%% Zero Context Examples have been commented out. Explain WHY an entry qualifies.
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5	* {{Anvilicious}}: The band are quite political, [[DontShootTheMessage though even fans who agreed with them]] had their patience tested when they started doing long rants during shows, best example being Serj's rant before Holy Mountains during their Rock in Rio 2011 concert. "Prison Song", a song about the prison system and how it incarcerates people for minor drug offenses, features heavily hamfisted ([[ShownTheirWork but well-researched]]) stats about the prison system that barely fit in with the rest of the song, even compared to the schizophrenic lyricism the band usually exhibits.
6	* AmericansHateTingle: Aside from the fact they have never scheduled a show in Turkey, their political stances and Armenian roots have resulted in the band gaining a considerably negative reception amongst the Turkish.
7	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic
8	** [[SignatureSong "Chop Suey!"]], of course. The closing verse in particular echoes through your soul.
9	** "Soldier Side (Reprise)" from ''Hypnotize'' not only brings ''Mezmerize'' to completion back where it all started, but is an Nth degree ProtestSong.
10	--->''They were crying when their sons left\
11	God is wearing black\
12	He's gone so far to find no hope\
13	He's never going back\
14	They were crying when their sons left\
15	All young men must go\
16	He's gone so far to find no truth\
17	He's never going home.''
18	** All of "Streamline": as depressing as it is, it's also insanely awesome, and Serj's ultra-epic high note at the end of the song is impossible to hear without instantly getting chills.
19	** And "Highway Song", with all of the poetry in a song about being in constant movement, physically and emotionally.
20	** "Psycho" is a live favorite for fans thanks to always closing with the breakdown between Daron's guitar solo and Serj's keyboard solo.
21	** Hearing the whole audience say in unison "They're trying to build a prison" when they play "Prison Song." You can almost feel the walls shake.
22	** “Chic ‘N’ Stu” is certainly a [[EpicRiff headbang-worthy way]] to open “Steal This Album”.
23	** "War?" from their debut album is a classic due to it's iconic opening/chorus riff, critique of the crusades and America's excuses for world dominance always changing and there is nothing like the circle pits that occur during the live interlude of post 2005 performances.
24	* BrokenBase:
25	** There's some disagreement among the fandom about ''Music/MezmerizeHypnotize'', mainly due to Daron's more prominent vocals and the slightly more comedic edge.
26	** John Dolmayan openly expresses right-of-center political views. Some System fans have been respectful of his opinions and appreciate the diversity of thought that he adds to the band. Others have accused him of betraying the band’s message or even want him kicked out of the band altogether. Despite this, John has affirmed that he appreciates fans of all political persuasions.
27	* CoveredUp: SOAD's cover of Berlin's "The Metro" is more widely known than the original, due to Berlin's version only being a hit in the US and SOAD's fanbase being unlikely to listen to new wave music anyway.
28	* CrazyIsCool: Is their music insane? Yes. Is it also awesome? Also yes.
29	* CreepyAwesome: Daron is the weirdest and creepiest man on the face of the earth, but he's also a damn fine guitarist and song-writer.
30	* EnsembleDarkhorse: They are one of the few NuMetal bands (if you consider them such, at any rate) that many metalheads will admit to liking (Music/{{Deftones}} perhaps being their main company here). This is likely due in no small part to their [[CrazyIsCool quirkiness]] and [[GenreBusting willingness to experiment with their sound]]; they don't in fact fit cleanly into any one genre of metal and their sound remains all but impossible to pigeonhole.
31	* EpicRiff: "Chop Suey!", "Aerials", "B.Y.O.B."
32	** Also, that weird intro riff to "Suite-Pee".
33	** "Sad Statue". So refreshingly retro.
34	** The follow-up, "Old School Hollywood", features an equally epic riff.
35	* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: The album version of "Prison Song" gets off one note, stops for a few seconds, then properly gets started. The band essentially started their most famous album with [[FingerPokeOfDoom a boop on the nose]].
36	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: Nigerians love moshing to System of a Down ''[[https://twitter.com/William_Njo/status/1273970743001395200 at weddings.]]''
37	* HarsherInHindsight:
38	** "Sad Statue" has continued its relevance into TheNewTens. With the line about "a generation that didn't agree" being less about an [[WeHaveBecomeComplacent apathetic generation]] and more about a generation that has had peaceful protests reacted to with violence by the dominant powers, the lyrics are ever relevant twelve years later.
39	** The video for "Boom" shows the "scary" factoid that the war could cost $200 billion. The total cost is estimated to be [[http://costofwar.com/ in]] [[http://threetrilliondollarwar.org/ the]] ''trillions''.
40	* MemeticMutation:
41	** Butchering any song (theirs or not) by replacing lyrics with the word [[InherentlyFunnyWords table]], particularly in the ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' community.
42	** "Chop Suey!" is often played over videos of one character violently shaking another character awake, or [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vObEK3Lbp4 with the words "WAKE UP" repeated over and over.]]
43	* MisattributedSong:
44	** "Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda" was never performed by System of a Down. It doesn't really even sound like them. Of course, a whole lot of people THINK it's System of a Down (or just Serj, their lead singer). It's actually by Joe Pleiman, from an album called ''The Rabbit Joint''; and is toplisted on the Website/TVTropes MisattributedSong page.
45	** "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor" is by Music/DrowningPool. And it's called "Bodies".
46	** Music/{{Disturbed}}'s song "Down with the Sickness". It's not called "Down with the System".
47	** Also, any time one or more members of the band collaborates with another band, it's labeled as a SOAD song on bootlegs and Website/YouTube:
48	*** "Don't Go Off Wandering" is the most egregious. It's a demo of a Music/LimpBizkit song, with a brief appearance by Serj Tankian. Granted, the released version (from Limp's ''Music/SignificantOther'' album) doesn't have Serj, but that still doesn't make the demo a [=SoaD=] song.
49	*** "Starlit Eyes" is by Serj Tankian and the band Music/{{Snot}}, recorded in tribute to Snot's singer, Lynn Strait.
50	*** "Feel Good" is by Music/HedPE, with additional vocals by Morgan Lander of the band Kittie and Serj Tankian. Serj is singing from "the sky is falling and I don't care", the rough growling is by Morgan, and the rapping is by Hed PE's vocalist Jahred Gomes.
51	*** "Mushroom Cult" is by Music/DogFashionDisco, with a guest appearance by Serj Tankian. It has no one else from [=SoaD=]. The title makes it even more confusing, since [[RefrainFromAssuming the chorus of "Sugar"]] also includes references to a mushroom cult.
52	* {{Narm}}: Some of their more {{Anvilicious}} lyrics have a tendency to utterly destroy the power of the songs. Especially since they're often ''spoken'' instead of sung, as if the band wants to make sure you ''know'' what they're trying to say but couldn't work out a way to fit the message into the music.
53	* NarmCharm: No other band could write a heavy metal song that contains the line "All research and successful drug policies show that treatment should be increased and law enforcement decreased while abolishing mandatory minimum sentences!"
54	* NightmareFuel:
55	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUzd9KyIDrM B.Y.O.B.]] is very disturbing, not least for being a critique on George W. Bush's presidency and the entire war on Iraq. The music video has references to John Carpenter's ''[[Film/TheyLive They Live]]'', with eerie, faceless soldiers dressed in pitch-black uniforms and having slogans like "Obey" and "Die" imprinted on their faces. The mix of red and black colors and lyrics like "handed to obsoletion, still you feed us lies from the tablecloth" and "blast off, it's party time, and we don't live in a fascist nation" make it a very memorable case of RealismInducedHorror, as no liberal democracy is completely safe from authoritarian structures like fascism and imperialism.
56	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKHF-5nPcOs "Dam"]] in its entirety. It's isolated pregnant guitar line and the distorted vocals of Daron Malakian make it very unsettling to listen to at night.
57	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quTWK5rufx8 "Mind"]], which pretty much could be considered "Dam" if it were heavier and 1000x more schizophrenic and hateful sounding. From the opening MoodWhiplash ("Look at each other... Look at each other... GO AWAY! GO AWAY!"), to its lyrics about molested children, random guttural vocals and let's not forget Serj screaming "GONNA LET YOU MOTHERFUCKERS DIE!" over and over at the end. And yet it's still [[CreepyAwesome awesome]].
58	** "Temper", which has sedate verses and a MoodWhiplash grindcore chorus, meant to wake up the general public from their apathy towards serious issues.
59	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXwLxcSniGw "P.L.U.C.K."]], a song about the Armenian genocide.
60	** "Thetawaves" is also very creepy, with some of the lyrics diving into conspiracy theory territory.
61	%% (ZCE) ** The inner sleeve artwork of their self titled album... shudder
62	* OvershadowedByControversy: The band has become known for the creative squabbles between Daron and Serj and, as of 2020, John Dolmayan's outspoken support of President Trump and increasingly overt far-right sympathies to the point where they threaten to eclipse their actual music, and many fans have openly begun to wonder why Dolmayan has not been fired yet. This ''slowly'' began to dwindle following the drop of two new songs right smack in the 2020 Elections, also helped by the band's reasoning was to donate reliefs to the genocidal actions in Artsakh and Armenia.
63	* SignatureSong: "Music/ChopSuey" is the leading candidate for SOAD's best-known song, being the first heavy metal music video to reach one billion views on Platform/YouTube. The major runner-up candidates are "B.Y.O.B.", "Aerials", and "Toxicity".
64	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Many fans of ''Manga/DragonBallZ'' will tell you that their song "Marmalade" sounds eerily similar to the {{Leitmotif}} of one of the series last villains, Super Buu.
65	* TearJerker:
66	** "Lonely Day", with it's simplistic lyrics about social isolation and getting through the day.
67	%% * "Roulette". (ZCE)
68	** "Holy Mountains", with lyrics about the Armenian Genocide and the significance of Mount Ararat in relation to it.
69	%% * "Streamline", due to it's lyrics being about not being there for a loved one on their dead bed.
70	** "Chop Suey!", when it's not being aggressive and loud, is heartbreaking, both with its Bible-quoting lyrics and mournful instrumentation, especially Serj's vocals and Rick Rubin's piano.
71	** "Lost in Hollywood," which is about somebody being discovered by Hollywood, becoming a big star, and then fading away in favor of the next "big thing". Having nowhere to go afterwards.
72	** "Soil" is one of their heavy tracks, but is just as upsetting if not moreso than most of the other ones listed here, as it's based off the suicide of a close friend of the band.
73	** "P.L.U.C.K.", the closer off their first album, is about the Armenian genocide like "Holy Mountain", but the track initially takes an aspect closer to righteous fury, until you hit the chorus, where Daron and Serj hit with a heartbreaking vocal melody, referencing how the Turks went as far as to committing infanticide.
74	** "Soldier Side", the album closer to Hypnotize, is about young men being sent to war and questions who will save them when they die. Serj's and Daron's haunting vocal harmonies throughout the track make it sound like a funeral dirge, but also the accompanying guitar solo brings back the chorus from "Soldier Side - Intro" off Mezmerize. This effectively brings the two albums into a full circle and make a powerful, evocative song.
75	--->''Welcome, to the Soldier Side\
76	Where there is no one here but me\
77	People, all grow up to die\
78	There is no one here but me.''
79	* ToughActToFollow:
80	** The band and its entire catalog qualify. Are four other Armenians going to get together to form another band? No famous band has--so far--followed in SOAD's footsteps close enough to be described as a clone or a spiritual successor. Then again, no famous band has really tried.
81	** As for the band themselves, the reason they have yet to release another album is because Serj doesn't want their follow up to the massively critically acclaimed ''Music/MezmerizeHypnotize'' to be anything less than an improvement thereof. Meanwhile, most fans and critics agree that, as good as that album is, nothing can top ''Music/{{Toxicity}}''.

Context YMMV / SystemOfADown