System of a Down - Toxicity

System of a Down's sophomore effort is a musically and lyrically ambitious 14-song collection that's even more left-of-center and powerful than their 1998 self-titled debut. Here the Los Angeles-bred foursome tackle everything from government ("Prison Song") to cocaine-crazed groupies ("Psycho") in a more pointed and aggressive manner than Rage Against the Machine. Serj Tankian's hardcore vocals and occasional Middle Eastern flourishes ("Science") contribute to the unique, ultra-intense, and quirky qualities of System circa 2001. Unexpected time changes and death-metal-like intensity give way to mellower moments, all of which make for demanding but irresistible listening. Toxicity is a masterful, unusual, and forceful opus. This release includes a bonus CD-ROM that includes behind-the-scenes footage, band commentary, and concert clips. --Katherine Turman Amazon.com review

Greatest Album Ever Made

Seriously, this is an incredible album and System of a Down are a truly unique band that have become the success that they are through creating music like nothing heard before. "Nu-Metal" is simply a genre label that was created in order to allow other bands with a "unique" sound to belong to. This is something that System of a Down created, they were a band that stripped away that label of being a rock band and essentially created a genre of their own. Serj Tankian the lead vocalist of the band is an incredible talent of massive proportion, he's not only a songwriter but he's a poet, a visionary and a political critic. He picks out parts of the System that are corrupt and downright criminal and gives us his no holds barred approach to the system. Along with being an utter genius at what he does, I think we can all agree that listening to how some of SOAD's songs are constructed Serj Tankian is possibly a little bit insane (The good kind, not the OJ Simpson kind.)

This album is considered by many to be the Systems best album to date and from turning on track 1. Prison Song you come to realise how inventive, talented and intelligent this band really is. This first song simply points out the hypocrisy of the legal system when it comes to drugs, it points out the convenience of drugs being on our streets and less money being spent on treatment and more on prisons when research does show that treatment should receive the most money from the government. It's a brilliant song that shows quite clearly the intelligence and political mind of the band. This is something that should be brought to the mainstream more often and it's a shame that even now bands like this are looked down upon simply because of their sound.

Honestly this is an amazing album and for those fans of music in general, who keep an open mind and are quite experimental in their tastes, then I promise you will be pleasantly surprised.

My Top 5 Are

Prison Song
Chop Suey
X
Deer Dance
Needles April 23, 2008

Melodic, heavy and as such...

This is the first SOAD ablum I ever heard and the intensity of it can blow you away (edit: I've heard intenser now...not as naieve...but it's still good). It has political rantings all over it but can also make you laugh with tracks like bounce.

1. Prison song 9/10. A great opener which explains how bad the prison system is and has the guitarist saying 'I grab my, smack my b**** right here in hollywood'. Good bass...yummy...

2. Needles 10/10. Very heavy and they appear to be singing about a tapeworm to begin with (yes...tapeworm). Then it goes calm and they sing about some tomb of some old man and then go heavy again. Powerful (edit: not really that powerful but it's pretty good).

3. Deer Dance 9/10. The verses are very melodic political rantings, which is odd because the choruses are thrash metal heavy(edit: that is now debatable). The contrast will work for some and not for others it all depends on what you're into.

4. Jet 10/10. I like this song. The topic is stupid but is so full of energy that I'm not bothered about the horse or the shackled old man mentioned in the lyrics.

5. XY 8/10. Okay but a bit samey to the other tracks above. And we do need to multiply (edit: trigonometry is more important of course).

6. Chop Suey 9/10. The most well known song off the album. About suicide it starts off heavy and then goes into an emotional outbreak in the chorus.

7. Bounce 9/10. Makes me laugh. Whoever thought there would be a song about pogo sticks? Serj also makes random croaking sounds near the end.

8. Forest 10/10. Sounds powerful and intense the entire time and the chorus is pretty (edit: rather) good too.

9. ATWA 8/10. Starts off calm and gets loud in the chorus. Okay I guess.

10. Science 7/10. This song does feel a bit samey to the other tracks. Fast and constant.

11. Shimmy 9/10. The guitars are heavy and Serj talks very fast. Nothing new BUT the chorus works very well with the song.

12. Toxicity 9/10. The first SOAD song I ever heard and this will always sound great(edit: I was mistaken it is wearing kind of thin). Serj sings/screams his heart out.

13. Psycho 8/10. Sounds drug influenced, and I swear I can hear children singing in the background...

14. Aerials 9/10. A nice melodic end and is one of the best songs. Perfect ending. (edit:...you know what I'm going to say)

If you like metal you won't be disapointed (edit:..um...no). If you like music you should still buy this for the melodic parts and if you don't like music why do you read reviews?

EDIT: The debut self titled album is significantly better...if you like this sort of music you should buy that over this... April 20, 2008

Justin's reviews

This is the best album that they came out with. Serge is my favorite from their band.
April 14, 2008

Toxicity is the genius continuing off the s/t album

My mind races at the thought of having to compare Toxicity with the first album. They are both amazing CDs that compliment each other so well thats why its such a mindf**k to pick a favorite between the two. I can choose favorite tracks; Shimmy and Needles. All I can say is that Toxicity is a better album to smoke pot to since I cant decide which album is better. April 7, 2008

System of a Down/Toxicity

I would recomend this to any system of a down fan or any rock fans, it has great songs, my 3 favorites on it are Toxicity, Chop Suey, and Prison Song. February 26, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...