The Deal: System of a Down’s Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan team up for debut album.
The Good: Malakian’s singing is nothing new to SOAD fans. Just about any of these songs would fit in just fine on a System album. Malakian’s got a unique voice and while the vocals of Serj Tankian are missed from time to time, this album is enough to satisfy System fans and win over some new ones. There’s a little more depth here – keyboards, melotrons, organs. Malakian handles everything but the drums and does it well. Just like SOAD, the album ranges from the melodic to the heavy, the humorous to the serious, the political to the perverse. The 15 tracks clock in at a fast and furious 45 minutes.
The Bad: No matter how you look at it, it’s not a System of a Down album. However, if there were a natural progression for the band, you’d expect a lot of these songs would have made that album. Malakian is a strong, diverse songwriter who showcases his talents on this effort. My first question is how they’re pulling it off live when Malakian plays nearly everything on the album.
The Verdict: If you like System of a Down’s songs without Tankian, you’ll find something to love about this one.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2008.
