Line #60 Music/MezmerizeHypnotize


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mezmerize_lp.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:''Why don't presidents fight the war?\
3	Why do they always send the poor?'']]
4
5	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hypnotize.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:300:''They disguise it, hypnotize it\
7	Television made you buy it'']]
8
9	''Mezmerize'' and ''Hypnotize'' are the fourth and fifth albums by Music/SystemOfADown, respectively. Released months apart in 2005, both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and enjoyed extensive mainstream success thanks to the singles "B.Y.O.B."[[note]]stands for "Bring Your Own Bombs"[[/note]], "Question!", "Hypnotize", and "Lonely Day". Originally intended as a [[DistinctDoubleAlbum double album]], the records were split to reflect the band's choice to let their audience absorb each individual track rather than giving unfair attention toward the hits.
10
11	The album focuses on more [[AlternativeRock alternative]] elements than their previous ProgressiveMetal albums, such as soaring acoustics, string sections, and more direct lyrics. In particular, the songs focus more on LighterAndSofter bits with [[EpicRiff Epic Riffs]] laden throughout, such as on the non-singles "Radio/Video", "Sad Statue", "Lost in Hollywood", "Holy Mountains", and "Soldier Side". In other songs such as "Stealing Society" and "U-Fig", the album has a more experimental aesthetic than before, especially since they straddle [[MetalScream Metal Screams]] with [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth minimalist guitar pieces]].
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13	Guitarist Daron Malakian was the leading creative force on this album and co-produced it along with Music/RickRubin. This led to some tension within the band, especially since vocalist Serj Tankian, who had previously composed most of the songs, decided to focus more on his solo career during the production and recording. The band has not released an album since, mainly due to Serj's reluctance to overcompensate and to put out something poor in quality, since it is regarded as a ToughActToFollow. However, after an extended hiatus, the members have still continued to perform together live since 2009, and each band member has had successful solo careers.
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15	Notably, "B.Y.O.B." won a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance, and remains their only Top 40 hit to this day.
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17	----
18	!! ''Mezmerize'' Tracklist:
19	# "Soldier Side - Intro"   (1:03)
20	# "B.Y.O.B." [[note]]"Bring Your Own Bombs"[[/note]] (4:15)
21	# "Revenga"   (3:48)
22	# "Cigaro"   (2:11)
23	# "Radio/Video"   (4:09)
24	# "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song"   (2:08)
25	# "Violent Pornography"   (3:31)
26	# "Question!"   (3:20)
27	# "Sad Statue"   (3:25)
28	# "Old School Hollywood"   (2:56)
29	# "Lost in Hollywood"   (5:20)
30
31	----
32	!! ''Hypnotize'' Tracklist:
33	# "Attack"   (3:06)
34	# "Dreaming"   (3:59)
35	# "Kill Rock 'n Roll"   (2:27)
36	# "Hypnotize"   (3:09)
37	# "Stealing Society"   (2:58)
38	# "Tentative"   (3:36)
39	# "U-Fig"   (2:55)
40	# "Holy Mountains"   (5:28)
41	# "Vicinity of Obscenity"   (2:51)
42	# "She's Like Heroin"   (2:44)
43	# "Lonely Day"   (2:47)
44	# "Soldier Side"   (3:40)
45
46	----
47	!! Principal Members:
48	* Serj Tankian – vocals, keyboards, theremin
49	* Daron Malakian – vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards
50	* Shavo Odadjian – bass, backing vocals
51	* John Dolmayan – drums
52
53	----
54	!! ''Welcome to the troper side... there is no one here but me...''
55
56	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Mezmerize'' is named for a lyric in "Hypnotize", which is on the ''Hypnotize'' side of the album: "''Mezmerize the simple-minded/Propaganda leaves you blinded''".
57	* {{Bookends}}: "Soldier Side (intro)" and "Soldier Side" on either album.
58	* BreatherEpisode: Hypnotize in general has a lot of gloomy, slow songs. However, it also includes "Kill Rock 'N Roll", an upbeat number about [[BadPeopleAbuseAnimals running over a bunny]], and "Vicinity of Obscenity", a piece of WordSaladHumor which encourages the listener to "beat the meat".
59	* ChildSoldiers: Children being [[WarIsHell drafted into war]] and dying far from home in "Soldier Side".
60	-->''They were crying when their sons left, God is wearing black''
61	-->''He's come so far to find no hope, he's never coming back''
62	-->''They were crying when their sons left, all young men must go''
63	-->''He's come so far to find the truth, he's never going home''
64	* DownerEnding: "Lost in Hollywood" on ''Mezmerize'' is a sad reflection on the way fame eats people up. This directly contrasts with "Old School Hollywood", which is a silly track about washed-up stars trying to maintain their own relevance. On ''Hypnotize'', "Soldier Side" is about the human costs of war and how people's faith in God die along with their loved ones. This contrasts "B.Y.O.B", "Stealing Society", and "U-Fig", which mostly mock the capitalist element to war.
65	* EpicRocking: "Holy Mountains", "Lost in Hollywood", and even "Radio/Video" with all its genre shifts throughout.
66	* FacelessGoons: In the "B.Y.O.B." music video, MechaMooks with words such as "Capitalism" or "Greed" storm a party and transform its members, including the band itself, into the same goons. It's a strange critique on how media forces us to think a certain way.
67	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: "She's Like Heroin", which fetishizes having sex with a more than cooperative hooker who's willing to let her client crossdress. One of the weirder tracks of the album, admittedly.
68	* IntellectuallySupportedTyranny: "Sad Statue", which references in part how conquerors who commit vile acts are often more intelligent and "eloquent" than the average person:
69	--> ''Conquest to the lover and your love to the fire\
70	Permanence unfolding in the absolute\
71	Forgiveness is the ultimate sacrifice\
72	Eloquence belongs to the conqueror''
73	* KidsRock: Somewhat disturbingly, during the final chorus of "Cigaro", a bunch of kids can be heard screaming the lyrics.
74	* LyricalDissonance: "Kill Rock 'n Roll" is about how Daron ran over a bunny while going to work one day. Despite this, the song itself is very silly and lighthearted, with a strangely moving bridge.
75	* LyricalShoehorn: "B.Y.O.B." has really oblique verses; most of the words fit together just for the sake of rhyming. However, the words do sound very profound especially with the song's anti-war subtext.
76	* MoodWhiplash: ''Mezmerize'' ends with the comical "Old School Hollywood" followed by the more morose "Lost in Hollywood." Hypnotize's "Holy Mountains" fades into the sexual "Vicinity of Obscenity" and then the even more sexual "She's Like Heroin". Then it closes off with two of System's softest, most depressing songs, "Lonely Day" and "Soldier Side".
77	* MusicalPastiche: Several reviewers have suggested that "Lost in Hollywood" is the band's tribute to Music/{{Radiohead}}'s "[[Music/TheBends Street Spirit (Fade Out)]]".
78	* NonAppearingTitle: "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song". Considering the fact that this song is a weird [[DrugsAreBad Anti-Drug]] song, this makes the title all the more ironic.
79	* OneWordTitle: "Revenga", "Cigaro", "Question!", "Attack", "Dreaming", "Hypnotize", "Tentative", and of course the album titles.
80	* ProtestSong: "B.Y.O.B." It's about how the media treated the war in Iraq as lighthearted fare instead of accepting the war's basic disregard toward human dignity in the area.
81	** "U-Fig" builds on this, mentioning how military recruitment ads are really divisive propaganda.
82	* QuestioningTitle: "Question!" [[ZigZaggingTrope zig-zags this]].
83	* SongStyleShift: Most of them, but "Question!", with all its crazy time signature changes (5/4, 9/8, 6/4, 4/4, 3/4) takes the cake.
84	** "Radio/Video" has intense choruses, soft verses, then a really soft and then loud chorus, a reggae-style verse, and a solo.
85	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Daron's backing vocals were already becoming gradually more prominent with ''Toxicity'' and ''Steal This Album!'', but this pair of albums has him become the [[VocalTagTeam co-lead singer with Serj]].
86	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: "Lonely Day", "Hypnotize", and "Lost in Hollywood"; neither have the extremely jarring [[SongStyleShift Song Style Shifts]] System is pretty much notorious for.
87	* ThrashMetal: Most of Cigaro. Attack and Sad Statue have their moments but BYOB is the song that plays this the most straight except for the soft chorus, there are no fancy solos but the riffs are as technical as they are heavy, complete with tempo changes to create an accelerating feel.
88	* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The music video for "Question!", which first shows life metaphorically as though it is a play: a young couple falls in love before the woman eats a berry, dies, and gets carried away by HorsemenOfTheApocalypse. It then shifts to show reality; the woman died during childbirth, and the baby is born to symbolize the renewal of life.
89	* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: "Sad Statue" mainly revolves around how our generation has grown complacent to the toxic influences society has on us, and how we cannot accept that we might be the last generation of civilization as we know it.
90	** Also, "Hypnotize." Which calls out young people recognizing all the problems in the world but choosing to do nothing about them.
91	* WhamLine: "Tentative" has ''Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?'' "Sad Statue" has the bridge "''What is it in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?''"
92	* WordSaladLyrics: "Vicinity of Obscenity" is deliberately nonsensical; [[WordOfGod according to Serj]], Dadaism was the primary source of inspiration for the song.
93	** "Violent Pornography", seemingly about how sex and violence in the media makes us desensitized to these issues in real life, has this strange lyric:
94	--> ''It's a non-stop disco\
95	Betcha it's Nabisco\
96	Betcha didn't know, woo-hoo''
97	* WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide: Justified in "Holy Mountains", which almost directly references the Armenian genocide (which the band is understandably vocal about, given that each member is Armenian). The song talks more about how difficult, but ultimately achievable, it is to move along from such a horrible mass killing. While it does call the perpetrators many things ("Demon" and "Sodomizer" being the standouts), it's more about how you should EarnYourHappyEnding by remembering it and calling attention to it, but not being bound by the chains of the past.
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Context Music / MezmerizeHypnotize