I find their new album to be softer than the previous 3 and I personally think there is too much of Daron's influence on this album and not enough of Serj and the others. To me one of the main appeals of the bands music is Serj's vocals which are unique and his lyrics which can be vague yet so descriptive at the same time. Nothing against Daron, who is a great musician, but him screaming lyrics at the top of his lungs does nothing but make them sound like any other rock band that can come up with a couple good riffs.
I'm rambling but, if you look back at their better songs from all four albums the more memorable ones like Chop Suey!, Toxicity, Sugar, and Spiders all had the music written by Daron and the lyrics were written by Serj. For some reason the band feels that if Daron helps with the lyrics he has to yell his contributions at some point during the song, I guess he's the one pulling the strings behind the scenes. Mezmerize is only one part of material they put together this time in the studio, I believe the second part is called Hypnotize which will be released later this year or next. Unfortunately I don't have high hopes for that cd because I believe most of the music and lyrics for that cd were all done by Daron who seems to be taking over the band. If I recall only two of the tracks on Mezmerize were played by the bassist Shavo, on the rest of the tracks Daron played both lead and bass, but whatever.
Personally my favorite album has to be the first one, which is self-titled, because it comes out of the corner swinging and keeps that up for the first 3 tracks. By the forth track you are lulled into a false sense of calm only to be violently awaken from your daze by music that would send your grandmother into cardiac arrest. By the fifth track you are treated to one of the more artistic songs that the band has ever done with its calming yet powerful vocals sung by Serj Tankian. For the next three tracks you can't help but get some of the catchy and offbeat lyrics stuck in your head for days to come, I still find myself singing "stupid people do stupid things, smart people outsmart each other" occasionally. If there was a weak spot on the cd it would have to be track 9, which can cause people to miss out on tracks 10, 11 and 12 which is what happened in my case. It wasn't until months later that I really listened to those tracks and it was like finding unreleased tracks on an entirely different cd. The cd finishes with classic System of a Down which starts off sounding like a person suffering from dementia and then calmly improves to a mere case of schizophrenia only to regress back into the darkness of mental instability.
Anyways they are a favorite band of mine too if you didn't realize. :lol: