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System of a Down

Mezmerize (Sony)

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By Andrew Marcus

Published on May 19, 2005

Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian may not be the first to have read media critic Danny Schechter while pumping Slayer. But on Mezmerize, System of a Down's third and most consistent album, the front men take a threadbare theme--the anesthetizing effect of mass media--and have more fun aiming their piss in its face than Rage Against the Machine (while boasting a sharper aim than Faith No More). A dumber band wouldn't think to pit coiled thrash against mock funk and Muzak straight out of beer commercials; a less adept band couldn't do so while sporting the most plausible musical split personality since the Bad Brains. The result, mitigating the band's turgid prog-rock tendencies, is more punk-spirited than any recent mainstream "punk." It's also as apt a setting for Tankian's lyrical Tourette's--"Everybody fucks, everybody sucks"--as it is a soundtrack for a nation fascinated by naughty housewives while tens of thousands of children burn in Iraq.