With an album as fun as it is political, System Of A Down are on the path to enlightenment

System Of A Down have accomplished something only politicians could dream of with their latest album, Hypnotize (American-Columbia). Having rounded off their neo-politico punk opera, started six months earlier on Mezmerize, they attack war propaganda, show their support for troops in Iraq and lay their Armenian ancestors' souls to rest by commemorating the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Plus, their stump speech is delivered with a post-Zappa, schizoid punk that breaks boundaries between thrash metal and smooth grooves. Along with artists like the Dead Kennedys, Nausea and even Bob Dylan, System Of A Down have started to move from pop culture to pop commentators. The final verse of the Armenian national anthem goes, "Everyone dies only once, but lucky is the one who is sacrificed for his nation." With that in mind, if they break up tomorrow, System can do so with pride. Bassist Shavo Oadadjian explains why.

When was the first time you heard Hypnotize in sequence?
A couple of weeks ago, because I was trying to stay away from it. Just because I recorded it so long ago, and if I was listening to it this whole time, the album would be old for me.

When you re-listened, what surprised you most?
The heaviness of it. It starts off like you want to kick somebody's ass, and then it ends with you wanting to hug your mom. When "Attack" comes in, and there's that big growl, you want to go hit someone. "Attack" is more of like a straightforward punk rock, "bring it on, but let's dance" song. And I swear to God, the first time I played "Soldier Side" to my mom—on my honor, I teared up. I had to walk out of the room. It's just that it affects me. I have a younger brother [who could go to war] and it's just really harsh, you know? ‘Cause it's pretty freaking blunt, the way we put it. When he says that "God is wearing black," that's just really strong.

What are the "Holy Mountains?"
To us, that song is an epic. It's not religious. It's about our mountains that are the Armenian national landmark but owned by Turkey. How crazy is that? Imagine the Grand Canyon owned by France. What the fuck is that? It's like, we have that on posters and labels and that's our landmark. So they are holy mountains because we fought many wars for those mountains.

Do you feel your band has raised awareness about the Armenian genocide?
This is where my mom accepted us, and accepted me, as in this is what I'm supposed to be doing, because for the Armenian people, we've done more than anybody else in America. I think we put Armenia on the map, and I'm not trying to pat our back or anything like that, but we have. No joke. It was so funny. We were hanging out with the guy from the Black Eyed Peas at the MTV thing, because we were friends from high school. We got signed the same week and our albums dropped the same day. Well, I see them in Portugal for the European MTV awards, and we're just hanging out, and [Will.I.Am] hasn't seen me in forever, so he got comfortable and he's talking about us. He was talking to one of the guys from Interscope—and he said something that really touched me. He goes, "What other band do you know that is backed by a nation? A whole nation has this band's back." Like, anywhere in the world you go and you see an Armenian, they know who System Of A Down is, and they pump it. There's no other four Armenian guys that are doing what we're doing and there has never been. It's not what we're about only, but it exists, so why not take it and be happy with it. We're a band. We happen to be Armenian. Turkey is not being accepted in the EU because they are not accepting the genocide. We don't want reparations—I'm not asking for money—I'm not asking for our land back because that's not going to happen. But I mean, come on. Give our people—our souls, a rest. At least accept their deaths.

Have you played in Armenia?
No. But I've been there. I mean, other than just being born there, I went back and I took my family there—my mom, dad, brother, gramps—just everyone who hadn't been back since we moved to America. I was like, I'm going to get my family a gift and have them see their family again, because we have family there we hadn't seen for 30 years, almost.

Do you feel pressure to be a political spokesman, based on your music?
No, I really don't feel that way. I look at us as a social band and politics play a very important role in society today and have been since we've been a band. So of course it's going to be in our lyrics. Of course it's going to be in our songs. We're thinking about it, it's happening, you can't deny it.

In other news, you're working on an album with GZA?
Well, RZA called me into the studio just to hang out, because we're friends. And he happened to be there with GZA. The next day, when I went back, I brought my bass in and I was like, "I want to play under GZA's vocal." I was trying to do something that hasn't been done, and I did it, where—say, he's rapping—usually the bass line carries it. So, I did two bass lines: one carrying it and one going with his vocals, like straight up with the rhythmic pattern—so I played the bass percussively. When I did that, he was like, "Can we make an album together?" I go, "You're my favorite lyricist of all time, man… If a year ago, someone told me I'd be working with you, I'd laugh at them." It's a big thrill for me. It doesn't sound like System, and it doesn't sound like Wu-Tang. It sounds like me and the GZA putting our brains together, which I've never heard before.

On Hypnotize, it sounds as though you've become better musicians.
Oh my God, yeah. I had to step my bass playing up by not one notch, but like 10, 15 notches. I used to be a guitar player who plays bass, now I'm a bass player that knows how to play the guitar. It's funny, because when I brought in "Dreaming," I brought it on the guitar and the band was like, "You've really gotten better on the guitar, man." And I realized that… my bass playing wasn't suffering, but it wasn't getting any better. So I was like, this is my career. This is my love. This is my passion. So, I just kept on doing it and now people ask me, "Do you practice a lot?" I go, "No, but I do play a lot of bass," because I see it as playing my instrument. If I wasn't in a band, I'd go home at night and still play my guitar or bass. Because I love to do it.

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