System Of A Down: Mesmerize

The nü-metal age has come and gone, pushed aside by neo-garage and "new rock" just as the hair-metal of the late '80s was gassed by grunge. And in that model, System Of A Down was nü-metal's Guns N' Roses, clearing the way for edgier music by making an unnerving-but-bestselling racket. Even now, on the new album Mesmerize, System Of A Down sounds like a band out of time. While neo-wavers like The Killers bellow agreeable inanities like "I've got soul / but I'm not a soldier," System Of A Down cuts the crap, screaming "Why don't presidents fight the wars / Why do they always send the poor?" Throughout Mesmerize, co-lyricists Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian rage on, tackling macho posturing in "Cigaro" (with Malakian howling, "Can't you see that I love my cock?"), media pandering in "Violent Pornography" (Malakian again: "Everybody fucks… everybody dies"), and the legacy of the modern age in "Sad Statue" (in which the statue in question stands in New York harbor and bears sorrowful witness to a divided generation).