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Artist News
System Of A Down not firing Serj Tankian
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 24 May 2013
Vocalist Serj Tankian is still part of the System Of A Down line-up, despite anything bassist Shavo Odadjian might have said earlier this week, OK? Don’t worry yourself. Off hiatus since 2011, the band are going to be playing live shows this summer as planned. All four of them. But you might have to wait for a follow-up to their twin 2005 albums ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
Earlier this week, Odadjian said via his personal Facebook page: “OK, I’ll come clean. It’s not us … it’s Serj, who doesn’t want to do a new album! So please stop harassing us about it! We are just waiting for SERJ! Now he might hate me for exposing the truth but I had to… sorry folks! We’re trying to get a new album out, it’s just not passing Serj’s RULES! Kinda funny, since we started the band [together] and now he’s holding us back!”
He added: “I’m ready to release [an album] with someone who wants to be the singer of System, [but] not someone we have to beg to be a part of System! So with that in mind, what do you guys [think we] should do? Just remember, he’s been holding us back for seven years so far. Wanna wait another four to five years? Or shall we release a record without Serj? You tell us!”
Odadjian did then say that he’d prefer record with Tankian, if that could be arranged, but the cat was out of the bag. Such uproar was there that later, the band’s official Facebook put out its own statement, saying: “Earlier today, Shavo posted a few statements on his personal Facebook page that do not reflect the sentiments of System Of A Down as a collective band. These were misleading statements that were made during a temporary state of bad judgment on his part alone”.
It continued: “To be clear, the full band line-up of Serj, Daron [Malakian], Shavo and John [Dolmayan] will be performing all scheduled tour dates. With respect to new SOAD music, although we have not agreed on a timetable for a new album, we all believe that having the four of us do it together is the way to be true to the band and our fans”.
So chill out, right?
