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New System Of A Down songs aren’t a sign of a new album, says guitarist

By | Published on Monday 16 November 2020

System Of A Down

If you’re thinking that System Of A Down’s recent release of new music might be a sign that their first album for fifteen years is on the way, you should probably stop thinking that. Because it’s not. Not according to guitarist Daron Malakian anyway.

“It’s not that simple, I guess. I wish it was”, he told BBC 6 Music. “It should be, but it gets a little bit more complicated than that”. Why you might wonder? Well, the guitarist adds, “I don’t wanna get into, like, ‘Well, it’s this person and that person'”.

But Malakian has previously said that it is frontman Serj Tankian who has stopped the band from returning – something Tankian himself has actually confirmed. The vocalist seemingly wants to take the group in a less heavy direction and is also not keen on long bouts of touring.

While the two new songs released earlier this month – ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ – offered fans hope that that deadlock had been overcome, seemingly it has not.

Malakian says that the band only reunited to record those two songs in order to raise money for the Armenia Fund charity to support humanitarian efforts following recent fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the self-declared Republic Of Artsakh.

“We did this for a noble reason, and we did this for the right reasons”, he said. “We didn’t make any money off this – everything we’ve made from these songs we’ve donated straight into Armenia Fund”.

“So it wasn’t like a money grab”, he added, “it wasn’t trying to get fame and attention, and, ‘Hey, we’re gonna break the internet’, or nothing like that. It was totally for the noble reason of our country needs us, and that was really the driving force and the motivation for this – it wasn’t really about, ‘Wow, we’re so excited to do a new System Of A Down record again'”.

“The fact that it happened so smoothly and everything like that, I personally do walk away and say it’s a shame that certain things can’t come together to make [an album] happen, let’s just say”, he goes on. “Cos we did do these two songs in a really comfortable, smooth [way]. Everyone got along”.

So, yeah, don’t sit there waiting for more new music. But you can listen to the two new songs here.



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