For the last Album of the week in the 2024-25 school year, I’m going to cover one my personal favorites. System of a Down is by far my all time favorite band, and my opinion, this is the best album they’ve ever put out. Released in June of 1998 , this album has 13 official songs, but in bonus and deluxe tracks, unofficial recordings of songs like Marmalade and Storaged can be found, as well as live recordings from their performance at New York’s Irving Plaza in 1999. Their debut is heavy, angry, and original. It deviates from the standard heavy metal genre, helping to define the era’s evolving Nu Metal scene. Featuring songs like Mind, Sugar, Spiders, and my personal favorite, Soil, the album relies heavily on the bands outspoken opposition to fascism and government oppression, especially during a time of significant turmoil not only in the United States, but also in the rest of the world. Their views are also captured through the choice of art for the album cover, which is a play off an anti-fascism poster, depicting a hand where the five fingers of the hand have both the power to destroy, overpower, and to create, representing the power that is held in the people. This album was their debut, the first of 5 monumental and incredibly unique collections including toxicity in 2001, Steal this Album in 2003, and Hypnotize and Mesmerize, both released in 2005. System has been doing tours for nearly two decades that have taken them all over the world, they are currently in South America completing their 2025 Wake Up tour.
