System Of A Down, a Los Angeles-based "nu-metal" band, was formed by three Armenian-Americans (Serj Tankian on vocals, Daron Malakian on guitar, Shavo Odadjian on bass). System Of A Down (American, 1998) introduced a violent approach to social commentary, reminiscent of the hysteria of the old punk-rock school but enhanced with metal riffs and assorted sonic detours. War? and Suite-Pee bear the stigmata of the Dead Kennedys, plus panzer riffs and demented screams. The best of the political rants, P.L.U.C.K., is a volcano that erupts sweet refrains, death groans, psychotic riffs and even ska beats. However, the band's originality is best displayed in the songs that straddle the border between genres, both in the ethnic realm, notably the syncopated middle-eastern metal fusion of Know, but also the foreign musical accents of Soil, in the pop realm, such as the bombastic power-ballad Spiders, and in the grotesque realm, with Sugar, and Suggestions, two music-hall skits gone terribly awry, and the emphatic and sarcastic Peephole, that simply takes those two sick ditties to an even more evil dimension. The six-minute Mind is the vocalist's tour de force, running the gamut from whisper to roar and dragging the music into an emotional black hole.

Toxicity (Sony, 2001) is another batch of visceral, vibrant anthems (Chop Suey, Aerials, Bounce) with occasional bursts of melodic fits (Atwa, Toxicity) and even ethnic elements (Jet Pilot). The overall effect is disorienting, like being hit by a thousand monsters in a dark room.
Tracks: Prison Song, Needles, Jet Pilot, X, Bounce, Forest, Atwa, Science, Shimmy, Toxicity, Psycho, Aerials.

Steal This Album (American, 2002) collects unreleased tracks that have been circulating on the Internet. The songs that rely on agit-prop rage get tedious very quickly: there is a reason if they were left over from the previous album. Among the others, the most interesting are the ones that display a sensitive soul (and it's a first): Ego Brain, "Roulette" and "Streamline", Nuguns.

Mezmerize (Columbia, 2005), the first half of a diptych, is both an extremely complex and an extremely violent experience. Basically, it is progressive-rock played by a hardcore punk band in a way to resemble the frenzy of a million post-industrial monsters. Ultimately, it is a rare example of brainy fury. B.Y.O.B. (for "bring your own bombs"), an angry slam-dancing anthem (alternating with a poppy rigmarole) worthy of classic Dead Kennedys, and Cigaro, a close second, as well as Sad Statue, evoke the spirit of the late 1970s; but the acceleration and deceleration of Revenga and the post-Guns N' Roses power-ballad Lost In Hollywood and the folkish breaks of Question show artful presentation behind the sonic attack. The sardonic musichall-in-hell skits of Radio Video and This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song, the brilliant disco spoof of Old School Hollywood and the emphatic satire with disco backbeat of Violent Pornography, prove a perverted sense of how to destabilize the world of heavy-metal.

The second installment, Hypnotize (2005), is inferior, and can't help sounding like a bunch of leftovers, although even leftovers are worth listening to when they are leftovers from good albums (see Attack and Lonely Day).