Review Summary: Toxicity is an alternative metal classic that has earned its reputation, as it's eclectic, well-written and delivers countless different, interesting ideas in a brief 44 minutes.
There's something a bit fun and confusing about listening to music for the sole purpose of nostalgia; kind of like playing a video game you were obsessed with when you were twelve, and stopped playing as your interests and standards became more advanced. System of a Down are a bit more advanced than Kidz Bop and Disney channel music, to say the least, and I have countless memories and scenes attached to each one of their albums, and plenty individual songs, that will likely never fade. It's a fair assumption that
Toxicity used to be my favorite album at one point, as I gave the CD countless listens when I was in middle school, although I probably gave
Mesmerize/Hypnotize a comparable number of time as well.
Toxicity has held up surprisingly well as a genuine classic in alternative metal that's rightfully acclaimed for being eclectic and crazy, but in a good and non-pretentious manner.
At this stage of the band's career, they kept their songs to some type of loose formula: pack in heavy riffs reminiscent of thrash metal, but loud and short enough to be remind one of hardcore punk, the prominent use of loud/soft dynamics, well-written and blunt lyrics that are generally serious in nature but delivered in a manically humorous manner, a general feeling of insanity (if it's not fast and thrashing, it's psychedelic and loose), and tight rhythms. The opening "Prison Song", one of the band's very best songs, is a great example: it opens up with heavy and unusually sparse chugs that lead into a
ferocious riff, public policy recommendations delivered in peculiar moments, and odd progressions that give the song a feeling of a manic rush.
The funniest part of System of a Down is that even though the bulk of their work follows these guidelines, they still managed to be the most eclectic metal band who broke into the mainstream in the early '00s. They weren't simply eclectic because of their lyrical content, progressive structures and frenzied deliveries from Serj, but they made unique songs by incorporating hardcore punk, noise rock, jazz-rock, music from the Near East, art rock, and other genres and interesting styles into a metal outfit. This allowed the band to make high-tempo, tight songs with ferocious energy that managed to sound consistently unique - for better or worse - that even famous experimental musicians like Frank Zappa couldn't always do. "Aerials" sounds nothing like "X", "Prison Song" sounds nothing like the disturbing "Needles", and then there's "Arto" (in some releases, a mere extension to "Aerials").
Toxicity is an inconsistent album, which isn't surprising because of this eclectic and creative drive. I don't blame them for the same reasons why I don't harshly criticize artists like Zappa and Wire; it's clear that they can write excellent, groundbreaking songs, and write a lot of them, and it's also clear that their creative juices aren't firing on every single song, and some songs have different purposes than others. The best of the best are phenomenal tracks that are some of the best alternative rock/metal songs of
all time. Notably,
"Toxicity": the title track is System's best song, one that combines intense content about environmental existentialism with fantastic musicianship that sounds melancholic, melodic, beautiful and terrifying. It's perfectly balanced, but excels with a genuine atmosphere and sounds amazing even without the great music video.
"Aerials": a fan favorite for a reason, "Aerials" is a psychedelic album that shows the band's influences from Middle Eastern music (they are Armenian, after all) with a fantastic vicar, tremendous guitar riffs, and a bittersweet atmosphere. It's progressive as one could want, and the ending is just amazing. It brings me back to riding the school bus in 6th grade.
"Forest": surprisingly progressive, but its four-minute run time (the album's longest!) is more-than-justified, as it's another intense but unique song with fantastic guitar work and well-written lyrics.
"Chop Suey!": overrated as the album's best song, or even more misleading, System's greatest song, but easily one of the album's best, and one of the most
convincing songs that draws listeners in. Dynamic, progressive, overdramatic, but somehow tight? Yeah, it's good.
"Psycho": a song that gets little love and acclaim, and despite being in between the album's two best songs, it actually fits right in. Its beginning is interesting, and then its barrage of riffs lead one to think it's just like one of the first few songs, but it turns into a psychedelic, loose, and very cool song.
"Prison Song": an obvious inclusion, and I already touched upon its strengths earlier on, but this is a fantastic song to lead
Toxicity off with, as it gets down to the nuts and bolts pretty quickly and stands as a classic on its own, outside the album.
"ATWA": coming off the heels of "Forest" comes "ATWA", another overlooked song that's actually pretty intense and memorable. If you compare how it starts off, with a gentle and sparse melody that's sort of lonely, to the sheer force of the breakdown that finishes it, you can guess how progressive it is, covering a surprising amount of room in less than three minutes. Call the guitar solo half-assed, but it's a thrilling song.
So what, 7 songs are great? What about the other half (just include 'Arto' on top of 'Aerials' and bend the knee)? The quality varies, and some kind of stretch how people can respond to an energetic and manic song that's completely ridiculous in lyrical content. Songs about pulling tapeworms out of rears aren't the most mature. "Deer Dance" and "Jet Pilot" are good and maintain the energy established by "Prison Song", but are definitely weaker in lyrical content and sound a little bit stale and derivative, which is unfortunate. The former gets by with its chorus (I do like how Serj delivers "PUSHING LITTLE CHILDREN | WITH THEIR FULLY AUTO-MAT-ICS..."), and the latter is at least short. "X" is fear-mongering about overpopulation, which isn't a thing with any scholarly backing, but once again, it's short and does an okay job at representing the paranoia and confusion of the politics in 2001. "Bounce" is energetic but doesn't have great musical ideas, and the band did a better version of this with "Cigaro" a few years later. Hell, even "Shimmy" sounds better in most metrics, as it's got a better rhythm and more interesting ideas that make it more progressive and fun. "Science" is pretty good, but not a standout by any metrics, and saying that science has failed the world is tedious... if it hasn't been clear, I don't endorse the politics of this band any more than I do for Rage Against the Machine or other politically-charged bands.
In case there was confusion,
Toxicity is the band's best album, largely because it's their most consistently interesting, engaging, and unusual album. While their debut album was experimental, raw, and helped establish the band's sonic templates, it was pretty inconsistent and fell off hard near the end (saved by "P.L.U.C.K."), and it lacked the melodies and fascinating individual moments that
Toxicity strives off. Some allege that
Toxicity is more mainstream and less authentic than their debut; it's certainly less experimental and more fit for mass consumption, but it's hard to argue that the band's creativity and songwriting skills grew worse between '98 and '01. This album is still packed with energy, but the production makes everything sound enhanced and dynamic, whereas their debut felt a bit too murky and sludgy like Black Sabbath's debut (which, yes, is dampened by its production). As for their next three albums, it's clear that there's a decline in the band's creativity as evident with the quality of the works.
Steal This Album is constantly manic and intense, still with good melodies, but it doesn't feel as developed as
Toxicity's tracks - short or long - and it shows that the band made the right decision by shelving them for release outside this record.
Mesmerize and
Hypnotize remain overlooked albums, but the band sacrifices the original and serious songwriting that drove fierce songs like "Science" and "ATWA" for often-lame, Zappa-esque comedy (I don't care about how big your cock is, Daron) with good melodies, but a lack of seriousness and conviction to most songs ("Holy Mountains" is a clear exception, as it's easily one of their top 5 songs).
Yeah, it's a great album that lacks pretentiousness and rarely over-indulges, but it's a consistently entertaining and creative alternative metal record that takes a ton of different musical elements and outputs an album that you can headbang and cry to, among other things. The highlights were already discussed, but I'll still emphasize the intense beauty of the title track and the mysterious, vicar-driven "Aerials" among the rest.
A
