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System of a Down

Hypnotize  Hear it Now

RS: 3.5of 5 Stars Average User Rating: 4.5of 5 Stars

2005

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There is no getting around it: System of a Down nearly made the no-contest hard-rock album of 2005. Instead, they have released a double album, Mezmerize/Hypnotize, in six-month chunks -- two separate records that each fall shy of pulverizing perfection and appear to be conceptually bound by little more than speed, fuzz and nonstop bile.

No one needs another seventy-nine-minute CD with thirty-nine minutes of filler. But the twenty-three tracks split between Mezmerize, which came in May, and Hypnotize -- all recorded at the same sessions and produced by Rick Rubin and System's main songwriter, singer-guitarist Daron Malakian -- would have fit on a single CD. Even that would have benefited from editing. "Cigaro" and "Radio/Video," on Mezmerize, basically a couple of songs about dicks and dickheads, were at best coarsely amusing. And that is the sound of spinning wheels you hear near the end of Hypnotize, in the gibberish and repetition of "Victim of Obscenity" and "She's Like Heroin," while the connecting effect of "Soldier Side" (the "Intro" on Mezmerize, the full-length terror that closes Hypnotize) would have been more obvious and persuasive on the same disc.

Still, there is much to be said for the way Malakian, singer Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan reopen for business here with "Attack." Hell immediately runneth over in Malakian's scoured-staccato guitars and Dolmayan's furious hammering. (If you've ever wondered how Metallica would sound channeling the Minutemen, now you know.) That hell, it's clear, is here to stay. "Candles cry towards the sky," Tankian sings in a mocking bark, a reminder of the vigils and memorial services that are now a grim fact of daily life. Later, during a break in the riff bombardment of "Tentative," Malakian bluntly asks, "Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall?" as guitars jangle like pieces of glass from blown-out windows. It is, of course, a trick question: Bombs are going off everywhere.

But this is fight-to-the-finish music, sometimes deliciously so. In "U-Fig," Malakian and Tankian suggest that one way to deal with evildoers is to simply devour them: "You and me/Should go outside and beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em beat 'em/All pathetic flag-waving ignorant geeks/And we'll eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em." Hardly an adult solution, but it's fun to sing along. More important, System hit the hairpin turns -- pneumatic riffing, gypsy-dance thrash -- with a light-speed concentration that doesn't seem human or possible in real time.

And they do it all over this album, in the surprise-attack twists compressed into songs such as "Dreaming" and "Stealing Society." That exhilarating directness gives Hypnotize a distinct edge over the more mannered theater of Mezmerize, while the stark, mostly reverb- free production here highlights the dogfighting vocal interplay, rare in punk and metal, where it's usually one lead singer Yber alles. The constant shift in role and temper between Tankian's warrior-of-the-steppes bravado and Malakian's cleaner dark-angel tenor actually reminds me a lot of the heated counterpoint and weaving harmonies of Jefferson Airplane and X. It is not easy to tell, in the way Tankian and Malakian feint and collide, who is on the march or on the run. Maybe that's the point: There are no clear-cut victors in these songs, only brutes, victims and rebels. Tankian and Malakian play them all.

Two tracks deserve special mention. At 5:28, "Holy Mountain" is System's idea of going long. But the band members are all Armenian-Americans, and they bring a personal vocal grief and punishing crunch to this monument to the 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks in 1915 and 1923. (The river Aras, mentioned in the song, runs from Turkey, on the border between Armenia and Iran, to the Caspian Sea.)

Then there is "Kill Rock 'n Roll," 2:27 of chugging guitars and monk-ish harmonies, with the funniest line on the record: "Mow down the sexy people." I don't get the song's hook line, though: "So I felt like the biggest asshole/When I killed your rock & roll." If Hypnotize is supposed to be the death of rock & roll, gimme more. And next time, don't spread it around. Bring it on all at once.

DAVID FRICKE

(Posted: Nov 17, 2005)

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Review 1 of 8

A7X writes:

5of 5 Stars


this album is awesome

i dont know what the hell fricking dave frick was talking about

Jun 8, 2008 18:04:19

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Review 2 of 8

WarSick writes:

5of 5 Stars


two words to desribe this album, FREAKIN AMAZING! when Hypnotize was released i thought it wouldnt be able to outwin their mezmerise album. boy was i wrong. every song is great! from "hypnotize" all the way to "soldier Side" this Cd is worth buying if ur a fan or just geating into SoD. they arent like other bands, thats why i love them!~~~Keep Rocking out~~~

Jan 7, 2008 05:26:25

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Review 3 of 8

lastwords360 writes:

5of 5 Stars


To me SOAD's Hipnotize is like listning to Rage Against The Machines: Battle for Los Angeles, but at more of world wide scale. Both bands lyrics are filled with truth insted of unresearched crap like politacly charged bands.

Dec 20, 2007 11:26:12

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Review 4 of 8

grenparptar writes:

5of 5 Stars


I love this album. I didn't at first, but I do now. My friend brought it to work and I immediately began putting it down, even though SOAD is my favorite band. I still wanted a copy, and when I got one I sat and played Animal Crossing and listened to Hypnotize over and over and over. There was a time when I was hailing it as their best album, even better than Toxicity! Now I realize that's not quite true but this album is solid. Soldier Side has become one of my favorite System song's, it seems to be alot deeper than any other song they do. Action packed guitar riffs and symbol driven stick smashing only lead to more, eventual, great System Of A Down albums.

Sep 29, 2007 17:27:51

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Review 5 of 8

saaaadddy writes:

5of 5 Stars


I do not want to get into detail here, but I would like to correct one obtuse error that the author made regarding 'Vincinity of Obsenity' (which he wrongly calls 'Victim of Obsenity'.

The inherent "gibberish" as he calls it is in fact a very clever play on words. The title also plays a vital role in understanding this.

The song is about sex, particularly STDs. All the lyrics are in the "vincinity of obsenity", ie. they are referencing dirty words without actually saying them.

Banana references the penis, Terracotta pie a diseased (terracotta symbolizes a brownish yellow color, ie. infected skin) pie which substitutes for vagina.

The continuous repetition portrays an act of sex, constant thrusting. There are also some other references if you read the lyrics properly.

Not gibberish. :)

Aug 5, 2006 14:06:20

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Review 6 of 8

hate writes:

5of 5 Stars


this record makes me cry

May 20, 2006 13:07:07

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Review 7 of 8

soad writes:

5of 5 Stars


Hypnotize is a work of art i think, system of a down are true artists every song has a very deep and significant meaning, just for example soldier side off the hypnotise album is truely amazing, it demonstrates how men are sent to war and how they are killed, and an other is the song hypnotize which shows how governments and companys are brain washing people. System of a down are not just a heavy loud band only ignorant people think that, if you listen close to the lyrics and the meanings they are amazing, every song is perfectly named and album done, so saying that stuff should be like this and that is just plain witty since system of a down are true artists much smarter and better than publicity wanting poets such as seamus heaney or gillian clarke

Jan 15, 2006 16:02:36

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Review 8 of 8

thirteenstolife writes:

4of 5 Stars


although Hypnotize and Mesmerize should have been put on the same disc, this one holds out perfectly on its own. system is not only a great and entertaining band, but also a deep politicized entity that is a great addition the their industry . the only problem seems to be that there are tiny flaws in some of their music that hold them back. if they could just identify their weaknesses they could easily wipe them out and form the ultimate album

Dec 9, 2005 18:30:45

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