Michael Moore News

System of a Down wants you to know they are not a political band. Yes, they came out against the war in Iraq. And yes, they hand-picked ultraliberal gadfly Michael Moore to direct their 2003 protest video, "Boom!" And yes, their latest single, the frenetic, guitar-crunching "B.Y.O.B.," contains angry rants like "Why don't presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?"

But still, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian — one half of the eclectic metal quartet — fiercely resist when people try to define them as the band with the left-leaning agenda.

"The fact that journalists have so made us into a political band, it's forcing us to be apolitical in some ways as a reaction to it," says Tankian, who on this day is the antithesis of his wild-man stage persona — soft-spoken and drinking herbal tea to soothe a sore throat.

"I mean, we do say things that are on our minds, but most of what we say is from a social perspective more than a political perspective," he adds. "Even though we have things that we touch upon, you know, social issues or political issues, it's a small percentage of what we do, compared to personal narratives, songs about life, theories, sex, humor."

Besides the politically charged first single — which Tankian won't even admit is an anti-war song, despite the soldier-themed video — there's plenty of material on their latest album, "Mezmerize," to back up Tankian's contention. The CD, part of outpouring of material that will continue in the form of a second album, "Hypnotize," in the fall, is at times mournful, romantic, hysterical, and bizarre — and may be the best synopsis of System of a Down in the band's 10-year history.

"There was a time when they had to write songs very specifically to define who they were," says longtime producer Rick Rubin, who worked with the band on their latest album. "Now, we know who they are, so now they can write their best songs, and they don't have to fit in such narrow guideline. It seems like people are more willing to go along the trip with them."

Not that they didn't have plenty on board for their first trip on the charts.

Since the group's self-titled debut CD in 1998, they've sold millions of albums with their amped-up metal sound anchored by bursts of melody and Tankian's voice, which ranges from soaring to screeching (the other band members are bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John Dolmayan). The new album, like previous System of a Down efforts, is hard to classify or describe: Middle Eastern-musical influences mix with almost operatic melodies and guitars thrashing at breakneck speed.

"It's rare to hear such emotional vocal harmony going on over such heavy music. It's very unusual," says Rubin (the band is on his label, American Recordings, with Columbia Records).

"They're kind of a throwback to the time when heavy music could be interesting in the '60s and '70s. I think they're a true metal band but metal has changed and gone away from the days of Black Sabbath and become really cookie-cutter. Everyone is competing to be the hardest, but no one is really writing songs."

Unlike some other metal bands, System of a Down's lyrical content has always been as integral to the band as its musical component, dealing with serious subjects ranging from drug addiction to government domination. System of a Down has always been vocal about their social causes or concerns, whether it be Tankian playing benefits to draw awareness to the Armenian holocaust of years ago (he and Malakian are of Armenian descent) to Malakian's concerns about the war in Iraq (he has family there).

Malakian, the band's lead guitarist and songwriter (along with Tankian) says the band's tilt toward the political is only one part of what they stand for.

"It's funny, you'll write a few songs about politics and that's what people will focus on. All we're doing is expressing the world around us," he says. "Politics is a part of that. If we didn't sing about it then we'd be leaving something else out."

"I think they just don't like being pigeonholed. I think yes they sing a lot of political lyrics but they're not purely a political band," Rubin says. "They don't like being made smaller than they are creatively."

Tankian says fans truly know the band know they are more than that, anyway.

"We're a multidimensional band artistically that embrace politics as much as embracing sexual innuendo or jokes," Tankian added.

The humor element is certainly evident on the new record — "Cigaro" features unprintable lyrics about male genitalia, while "Old School Hollywood," which Malakian wrote after feeling a little left out at a celebrity softball game, features lines like: "Tony Danza cuts in line / Old school Hollywood, washed up Hollywood / Standing in the sun I'm wasting my time / Old school Hollywood washed up Hollywood."

"Even in our most serious songs there's like absolutely hilarious antics going on and that comes from us just thinking, 'Hey, we can't take ourselves seriously otherwise we miss the point, and no one should either,'" Tankian jokes.

While Malakian as always written most of the band's music, this time around, he wrote more of the lyrics and shares more in the vocal duties, trading rants with Tankian.

Malakian's singing "changes our sound and that's really important," Tankian says. "I don't think any of us ever want to recreate the same record again."

That was part of the goal of "Mezmerize," the band's first since 2002's "Steal This Album."

"You want to push yourself and not recreate the same song over again," Malakian says. "That by itself brings out new things. When you try to do new things, you find that you start failing at it."

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On the Net:

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