"System Of A Down - Toxicity" Stick it Out for the Second Half

 

    I have in fact tried listening to this album before. I remember Anthony Fantano saying he really loved Toxicity, so I decided to put on Prison Song at 12 pm, before promptly realizing this is exactly the kind of music I'd rather not listen to going to sleep, and that the song was really on the nose. Other than that I have absolutely no prior experience with System Of A Down other than Chop Suey! which is a lovely song that Jeff Rosenstock continues to play before every single one of his shows (thankfully). So I suppose I won't pretend to deliberate further because I'm not particularly a big metalhead either, so I doubt any knowledge I might impart would be useful. So without further ado, my track-by-track review.

Toxicity - System Of A Down

Prison Song  - 55/100 While the chorus and the song in general goes pretty hard, I have to say just the whole delivery of the verses is really holding this song back. Well other than the fact that it's pretty much just them giving a pretty brief lesson on the prison-industrial system. So like either way it'd feel pretty weird to play this song repeatedly and be really into it, because like what exactly are you into? People being imprisoned? Ok the bridge is kind of funny though I'm sorry him yelling into a microphone to talk about "research and drug policy" is kind of ridiculous.

Needles - 70/100 Maybe I'll have a hard time taking any of this album seriously I cannot listen to these lyrics juxtaposed against the lyrics how am I supposed to jam when someone yells "Pull the tapeworm out of your ass" repeatedly to me. Nonetheless I'd say it's a pretty good song if you just ignore any references to tapeworms like in the bridge or the verses. EDIT: After further listen this song is growing on me maybe I just have a tapeworm up my ass.

Deer Dance - 65/100 I'm sorry but the vocal delivery on this album is so funny the way he says "we can't afford to be neutral on a moving train" almost has me laughing but I do really like the pre-chorus and bridge in this song. Maybe it's just taking me a bit for Serj's singing style to really grow on me. 3 points above needles for nothing as ridiculous as a tapeworm being prominently featured.

Jet Pilot - 60/100 I can appreciate that this album goes hard but also doesn't have songs that are super long. I feel like if they're constantly going super hard for super long it starts to just kind of devolve into something I don't particularly appreciate.

X - 75/100 I kind of like it when he's just yelling in my ear to not multiply, I don't know what it is about it but the chorus in this song goes particularly hard to me.

Chop Suey! - 98/100 They play this at the beginning of every Jeff Rosenstock show and when I went to it people were moshing the hell out to this song it's kind of amazing. Like it's kind of insane how much better this song is compared to everything else on this album I should probably lower the scores of every other song just because I started listening to this one again. There are simply no notes to be had

Bounce - 25/100 Putting this song after Chop Suey! is grounds to be drug tested. Whether it be the story he's trying to talk about pogo sticks or the weird chicken sounds that sometimes appear in this song, I have no idea what to make of any of this other than it kind of stinks. I suppose it can have 25 points for just being kind of ridiculous and short enough that if I take it as a joke it doesn't completely ruin the album.

Forest - 85/100 Why is this kind of easily better than any song right before Chop Suey!, who came up with the track listing for this album? It doesn't sound completely lyrically, and composition wise I think this is the best sounding chorus after Chop Suey!, why is it randomly right after Bounce?

ATWA - 87/100 Daron Malakian sounds like Lin Manuel Miranda but just everything about this song is miles above the first half. The guitar solo in this song goes so unbelievably hard I just had to replay it. Perhaps there's hope still out there that System of a Down finishes this album strong.

Science -78 /100 Not sure if I agree with the sentiment that Science has failed the world but I get what he's trying to say. A pretty "short but sweet" song, if any System Of A Down song could even be described as that.

Shimmy - 70/100 Song goes hard, though him saying shimmy repeatedly kind of pulls me out of it because I just start thinking about that GIF of pedophile Karl Malone shimmying repeatedly. 

Toxicity - 83/100 You know what some of these lyrics I won't even question they're not that weird enough. Also once again I ask myself why this album is 15 songs long and not ten songs long because if the album just started out with songs like this it would just be significantly better (though Bounce is so bad I'll try not to include it in my final score so it doesn't skew it too harshly).

Psycho - 81/100 Honestly I just need to stop being so picky and enjoy the music, because when it comes to this song I pretty much enjoy any part of it that isn't them chanting "psycho, groupie, cocaine, crazy". Honestly it's kind of growing on me I think the verses and the guitar solo is helping smooth things over. Ok the guitar solo is saving this song really hard.

Aerials - 82/100 Who would have guessed that the way for System Of A Down to be better was to not be so in your face both sonically and lyrically. Also just in general the songs just have significantly better choruses/verses in the second half. 

Arto - N/A Just some cool chants what a really strong finish from SOAD

Final Score: 78/100

    Everything surprisingly worked out to a very clean 78. Which is a score I give it tentatively, and I reserve the right to raise as I listen to this album more. I'm going to be honest, I thought this album would be overrated as hell. I mean it is so highly regarded, and frankly listening to the first half I wasn't really enjoying or feeling anything well enough to say hey I'd put this on my liked songs playlist. I'd liken this album to The Fame by Lady Gaga, in the sense that I'd say the high points are very high, and not just enjoyable, but songs I'd go mosh/dance to. The only issue is that I can't just ignore all of the other songs that are conveniently attached to this album. If this album was slimmed down to around 10-12 songs, with no Bounce and maybe some of these tracks being b-sides, I think the score would be much higher. Sadly, it's not though, but I do have to admit it turns out this album is more than just the Chop Suey! album, even if it really does feel like that especially at the beginning. Honestly I kind of want to revisit some of the songs from the second half, maybe then I'd enjoy them enough to raise the score and give this album a nice clean 80. But otherwise, I find it hard to justify a higher score even with it's strong finish, just because of how weak it starts off.