The Music Thread: Redux

Seeing as the mods have archived the original thread (Please just bring that one back, it was a gem with a lot of realy good music in it), I've decided to restart it here. Just like before, feel free to contribute anything you listen to or want to share!

This thread is dedicated to my good friend Unleashed.

Buckethead - "Lirston Nostril" - 2014



The Cure - "Disintegration" - 1989



Duster - "Earth Moon Transit" - 1998



Cockney Rebel - "Sebastian" - 1973



Tik-Tok - "BOMJ" - 2012



CHON - "Rosewood" - 2019



Hyakkei - "Kagefumi" - 2006



Covet - "Sea Dragon" - 2018



Plini - "Every Piece Matters" - 2016



Eric Feinberg - "Birds and Trees" - 2015



Shunzo Ohno - "Antares" - 1980



Scale the Summit - "The Winged Bull" - 2016

Bitch ass Unleashed

Wr1tt3n by Augustus Caesar, 18.12.2019 at 20:42

Bitch ass Unleashed

Wtf

Where da music at my girls

System of a Down and associated acts (Serj Tankian, and especially Scars on Broadway) have had an extremely profound effect on my musical tastes and otherwise throughout my life. When I was eighteen I evne bought an Ibanez Iceman IC400 just so I could rock the same gear Daron does lmao. Anyhow, here's my personal collection of favorites from all of this guys in chronological order:

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System of a Down's self-titled debut featured an extremely diverse variety of experimental tracks, something that wouldn't be ever seen again as the band began shifting towards a heavier Nu Metal direction influenced primarily by Middle Eastern musical scales hearkening back to their Armenian heritage. As such: System of a Down is my least favorite album of theirs overall, but that's not to say that it isn't without great banger tracks and amazing instrumental varieties.

System of a Down - "Know" - 1998



System of a Down - "Sugar" - 1998



System of a Down - "Soil" - 1998



During their intermission from 1999-2000, System did in fact record truckloads of material and appeared in many collaborations with other prominent standout Nu Metal bands on the scene at the time. For reasons unknown, most of this material only ever appeared on a one-time release dubbed "Toxic Trax" in 2001, as well on the fan compilation B-Sides album "Storaged Melodies". Tracks such as Blue would later show up on Serj Tankian's solo material well into the future. The most interesting thing of note here is that these B-Sides actually produced a third album for the band later on- Steal This Album!.

System of a Down (ft. Wu Tang Clan) - "Shame" - 2000



System of a Down (Serj Tankian) - "Blue" - 2000



System of a Down - "Honey" - 2000



Toxicity is to many SOAD's seminal work. While I agree that it is a class and a standard-bearer for the band, by no means do I believe it is without fault. At times the album does drag, and at others it simply lacks the same variety that other albums offer by comparison. Despite Chop Suey's meme status, Toxicity claims a great number of fantastic tracks and isn't anywhere short of bangers. Most importantly however, Toxicity catapulted the band toward the increasingly-heavy and politics-focused juggernaut the band would form to be by the mid-2000s.

System of a Down - "Deer Dance" - 2001



System of a Down - "ATWA" - 2001



System of a Down - "Toxicity" - 2001



As stated previously: Steal This Album! is by-and-large a mix of B-Sides and rewrites of previous Toxicity demos. What Toxicity lacked in flavor however is definitely improved with Steal This Album as a vast array of instrumentals, melodies, and of course the banging heavy split-input nature of Daron's guitar playing shows its sharp and ragged face here just as prominently as it did in Toxicity. Despite never getting the same radio play and press coverage that Toxicity did, Steal This Album! is owed just as much credit for really pushing the band towards its coalescence in their 2005 double album.

System of a Down - "Innervision" - 2002



System of a Down - "Pictures" - 2002



System of a Down - "Streamline" - 2002



What's not to say about Mezmerize? It was polarizing to some at first, as the band cemented itself as a fast, cutting-edge, heavy, political band blasting the theories of Max Weber into everyone's ears for years. B.Y.O.B. won the band their first Grammy win; Cigaro pissed everyone's parents off; Question! made all of us floating as Icarus steady ourselves below the Sun enough to get by. That same mix of heavy-and-soft from previous albums appears here just the same with Question! and Lost in Hollywood, as well as the same experimental tunes with Old School Hollyhood. Mezmerize is truly the album you hand to someone who has never heard SOAD before and wants a quick taste to gain the full gamut of emotions the band provides; a better benchmark than Toxicity could ever hope of being.

System of a Down - "Soldier Side - Intro" - 2005



System of a Down - "Revenga" - 2005



System of a Down - "Sad Statue" - 2005



System of a Down - "Old School Hollywood" - 2005

]

System of a Down - "Lost in Hollywood" - 2005



Where Mezmerize brought together nearly a decades-worth of experimentation and innovation on the band's part, Hypnotize cranks all of it up a notch and injects you with musical bipolarism every twenty seconds. No, not the band kind of bipolarism- every succeeding track on Hypnotize provides a wholly new and original experience, whilst still continuing the same heavy story Mezmerize started in its overall song structure and progression, culminating with the eponymous Soldier Side. She's Like Heroin is such a ridiculous song yet provides such a unique storyline- that of a gender dysphoric abusive heroin addict pimping his girlfriend out to further his habits and deny himself his inner feelings. Well, that's at least my interpretation anyways. The same goes for Kill Rock'n'roll: On the surface, it wholly sells itself as a commentary on the self-destructive nature of artists and their vices. Yet in actuality (according to Daron Malakian) the song is merely retelling a time where he ran over his neighbor's pet bunnyrabbit. As serious and politically-charged as System has made itself out to be, Hypnotize humanizes the band after the monumental emergence of Mezmerize.

System of a Down - "Attack" - 2005



System of a Down - "Kill Rock'n'Roll" - 2005



System of a Down - "Tentative" - 2005



System of a Down - "U-Fig" - 2005



System of a Down - "Holy Mountains" - 2005



And with Hypnotize came silence unending- still as of December 2019 there has been no official follow-up, despite nearly a decade-long touring schedule the band has been following. Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian have expressed disinterest with ever working with each other on System material ever again, and ever feeble attempt since has been met with indirection and derision from both camps. These monumental differences were hinted at during the course of Mezmerize and Hypnotize as both Serj and Daron took on the role of lead singing, a first for the band. These fractures would be confirmed in 2007 when Serj announced and released his solo album debut: Elect The Dead. It was what you would expect from the Serj camp in System: Not too heavy, but heavy where it needs to be; Artsy; Politically-charged. Nothing too special compared to what was achieved in Mezmerize and Hypnotize, but definitely worth a listen.

Serj Tankian - "Empty Walls" - 2007



Serj Tankian - "The Unthinking Majority" - 2007



Serj Tankian - "Honking Antelope" - 2007



...And if Serj could release his own solo material, why couldn't Daron? The aforementioned lead System guitarist would do just that a year later in 2008 with his new band's self-titled debut: Scars on Broadway. Despite this album sounding like it took heavy inspiration from Mezmerize and Hypnotize- or possibly being B-Sides from that era altogether- it lacks the same soul and creative direction that was stamped into System's previous outings. Just the same as Serj Tankian's Elect the Dead, Scars on Broadway is worth a god hard listen if you're a fan of the band or want the full story.

Scars on Broadway - "Serious" - 2008



Scars on Broadway - "Funny" - 2008



Scars on Broadway - "Kill Each Other / Live Forever" - 2008



Imperfect Harmonies would mark the moment Serj's egotism began to spiral out of control, but also where his musical broadening would take place as he began to creep his brand of Metal into the backseat and let his arguably creative genius take the wheel. Despite this positivity, Imperfect Harmonies as a self-aggrandizing turd most likely used by Serj as a masturbatory tool; There is no song structure, no lyrical preparation, no harmony- nothing. It's just some dude yelling into the microphone about the Armenian genocide for the four-hundreth time. Skip this, I don't care if you want to hear it- it ain't worth it... well, three tracks are tolerable, and it would be biased of me not to include them.

Serj Tankian - "Disowned Inc." - 2010



Serj Tankian - "Borders Are" - 2010



Serj Tankian - "Peace Be Revenged" - 2010

Harakiri is the point in Serj's life where he realized that people only buy his music when he sounds like System more than Serj Tankian. Hence, we have Harakiri: A radio-friendly politically-charged System album that wasn't. The album is extremely strong, and an amazing comeback from the failure that was Imperfect Harmonies. I highly recommend this one, there isn't a single bad track here. Harakiri really stands out as a slow-rolling banger that really drives the point home about just how brutally fucked the entire BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and its subsequent cleanup (or lack thereof) truly was.



Serj Tankian - "Figure it Out" - 2012



Serj Tankian - "Butterfly" - 2012



Serj Tankian - "Harakiri" - 2012



And in the same year Harakiri was brought to us (2012), so too did Scars on Broadway have prepared for us their latest outing... only it never happened. In 2012, System reunited in the quest to make more money make new music tour and sell merchandise from 2004. Nonetheless, all the material Daron wrote for Scars who siphoned over to System; The writing process on their long-awaited sixth album had begun, and it was to be named Dictator. Writing came to a zenith in 2016 during the presidential elections, a time ripe and ready for System to make a comeback and show the world their take on the situation. Only, it never fucking happened, and we know who to blame, citing "creative differences", but we know the real reason: Serj isn't content with being in the passenger seat when Daron is writing the songs everyone remembers best and singing them with an actual soul- the kind of ferocity System made manifest, and desperately needed to resurrect this year decade. The album was scrapped, and the band went back on tour lazily singing their fifteen year-old music and continuously being miserable. By 2018, Daron had finally realized that he didn't need Serj, or Shavo, or anyone really. He re-wrote and recorded the entirety of Dictator on his own in 2017-2018, bringing back his 2012 Scars on Broadway material into the ultimate Fuck You album; the titular track "Dictator" expresses this sentiment heavily. I cannot recommend Dictator enough- it is the System comeback album we all were dying for, but unfortunately were not granted due to egotism. Despite this, having no Serj around has never sounded better. I would go so far as to say that Dictator is better than most of System's discography even, and feels more alike to a third act in the Mezmerize/Hypnotize days. I seriously implore you give this one a listen.

Scars on Broadway - "Lives" - 2018



Scars on Broadway - "Angry Guru" - 2018



Scars on Broadway - "Dictator" - 2018



Scars on Broadway - "Guns Are Loaded" - 2018



Scars on Broadway - "Never Forget" - 2018



Scars on Broadway - "Sickening Wars" - 2018

Tom Jobim + bossa nova + lo-fi + vaporwave = A E S T H E T I C S

Unleashed must really like music