Track Listing

1. Soldier Side (Intro)
2. B.Y.O.B.
3. Revenga
4. Cigaro
5. Radio/Video
6. This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song
7. Violent Pornography
8. Question!
9. Sad Statue
10. Old School Hollywood
11. Lost In Hollywood

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3540 in Music
• Released on: 2005-05-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first instalment of a projected two-album set, Mezmerize sees System Of A Down, an American band of mostly Armenian heritage, further distilling their unique formula of thrash metal, socio-political rage, and Eastern European vocal melody into ever-more fiendishly complicated and white-knuckle exhilarating forms. Moreso even than 2001's Toxicity, this is a album of intense complexity: crammed with whiplash-inducing tempo-changes and a schizophrenic mood that sees sing-a-long, poppy choruses segued effortlessly into breakneck speed-metal, it's as bewildering on first listen as it is addictive after three.

Like Rage Against The Machine, SOAD are a fiercely moral band, but they never let their message stagnate through po-faced delivery: see, for instance, "Cigaro"--ostensibly a song about abuse of power, but one which opens with frontman Serj Tankian yelping "My cock is much bigger than yours!" Musically, too, they're not without an occasional lightness of touch: see the excellent "Radio/Video", riding along on a bouncy ska rhythm. But it's perhaps inevitable that Mezmerize should climax on a note of epic disgust, in the shape of "Old School Hollywood" and "Lost in Hollywood" – two songs that rage against the glossy materialism of their Los Angeles hometown, taking down a regiment of Z-list celebrities and "maggots smoking fags on Santa Monica boulevard" in a firestorm of righteous fury. --Louis Pattison

Album Description
Mezmerize is Disc One from System of a Down's 2-disc set, Mezmerize/Hypnotize. Disc Two ("Hypnotize") is expected to be released in late 2005.

System of a Down wrote some thirty tracks for "Mezmerize/Hypnotize"--including "B.Y.O.B." [Bring Your Own Bombs], which questions a president's involvement in the business of war--and recorded them at producer Rick Rubin's Laurel Canyon studio between June and November of 2004. The album was produced by Rubin and Daron Malakian and mixed by Andy Wallace, who also mixed Toxicity and Steal This Album!

The new songs are more complex, more progressive, more unorthodox, and more experimental than ever, while retaining the idiosyncratic, ironic and schizophrenic qualities that make System of a Down so distinctive. Topics include relationships, the evils of television and corporate mind control, the mysteries of life and death, and a surreal experience at a celebrity baseball game. Some of the song titles include "Radio Video," "Old School Hollywood," "Cigaro," "Lost in Hollywood," "Question," "Vicinity of Obscenity" and "Revenga". The decision to release the two discs six months apart was made simply to give fans time to get into and really live with the music from Disc One before plunging into Disc Two.

CD Description
Forming part of a two CD set, with the second album 'Mesmerize' released in the summer of 2005, this is the third albumfrom American metal outfit System Of A Down. Produced by Rick Rubin and the band themselves, the album mixes the band'sdistinctive nu-metal sound with their thought provoking lyrics.

Customer Reviews

Mezmerizing Metal
I can see how some people hate this album - weird sounds, weird lyrics... I'm a massive SOAD fan, their self-titled album was probably my favourite pre-Mezmerize/Hypnotize of the three, so when I heard B.Y.O.B. and Cigaro on the radio a few weeks before this album came out, I thought it would be incredible.
Surprisingly after the first listen I was a little disappointed - there didn't seem to be any 'anthems' aside from B.Y.O.B. and there were a few strange songs. After a few listens though, I realised that every single song was an anthem.

I saw SOAD on their Mezmerize tour in June 2005, and to be honest, I can't imagine a better display. Starting with Soldier Side (Intro) being played behind a curtain, only for the curtain to drop when B.Y.O.B. kicked in, it was clear that every song from Mezmerize would be a classic.

This album displays all of System's traits - Crushing-yet-catchy riffs, sing-along choruses, eastern instrumetal solos, comedy lyrics, political lyrics, and general 'bizarreness'. Heavy songs B.Y.O.B., Revenga, and Sad Statue are equals to classics such as Chop Suey, Sugar, and Suggestions. Crazy songs Cigaro, Cocaine, and Old School Hollywood bring relief from the political rants (Malakian singing an acoustic version of the first verse from Cigaro is possibly the funniest thing I've ever seen/heard). Album closer Lost In Hollywood is a beautiful song even with the 'un-beautiful' lyrics "All you maggots smoking fags out there...".

To some it up, this album has everything, sounds like nothing before it and nothing since, and will forever be remembered as half of the greatest double album ever made.

Quality Album from a quality band
There was a lot of hysteria surronding "Mezmerize" before its release, would it be able to match or even topple the sucess of multi-platnium "Toxicity" and keep up the maamoth sales that it inticed.
Seeing that many magazines gave it glowing reviews i decided i would buy it, and i was not dissapointed.
Although it takes a more melodic and less heavy approach than their previous albums with more daron singing (a bad thing)it was a piece of arts genius and shows that metal does not have be bland or hollow screaming to make it sell.
And unlike the weaker "Hypnotize" you can just put it on and not skip one track, chock full of catchy metal and rock tunes with main vocalist/keyboradist Serj Tankian using all of his vocal talents giving it every drop of emotion he has.
From the gentle "Soldier side" to the beserk "cigaro" with daron malakian (vocals/guitar) signing stuff like "cant you see that i love my cock"
features the singles "Bring Your Own Bombs" "Question" and i think "Cigaro"
All in all a stunnig piece of work with a triple platnium success. Buy it, you wont be dissapointed, see why they stand out from other metal bands.

Inventive guitar riffs, that are annoying to play coz they are in drop C tuning, damn! ( i am too lazy to detune my guitar)

Great, but could it have been better?
This album seems perfect for a generation with MTV attention spans (it clocks in at about 38 minutes - shorter than an episode of 24!) but it is the first disc of a 2disc set so that may explain the short running time. There are moments of sheer genius on this record - 'Revenga' is one of the best modern rock songs I've heard and 'Lost In Hollywood' is truly haunting - but as a longtime fan of System I can't help missing Serj Tankian's presence as the overall frontamn.

Daron is all over this album - guitars (obviously), songwriting, lyrics, vocals, production - and while he's clearly the biggest creative force behind the band the fact remains that Serj is simply a more unique and quite frankly better vocalist. It would have been nice to have Serj still singing the majority of the lead vocals (for all his claims to have moved more to the musical side of things, the cd sleeve only gives him music writing credits on one song).

However, as an album Mezmerize is simply fantastic. The overall sound is massive and heavy as hell (although its disappointing that they've finally given in and started using Autotune more heavily) and the songs are leagues ahead of what most other bands are putting out these days.

If you've been a fan of System since the beginning you may have reservations about Daron's frequent lead vocals but you'll still thoroughly enjoy the album. Everyone else should just buy this immediately (followed by all their other releases) and get up to date with the greatest hard rock band in the world today.