I’ve been into metal for a long time, and enjoy even the underground bands that no one really cares for, and when Toxicity was released by System of a Down I didn’t really pay attention. At the time, I was in high school and was interested in running my record label, and trying to pass through school, as most teenagers are concerned with.

Recently I was at borders spending a gift card that I received from a social networking site, and couldn’t really find any books that weren’t costly, so I looked at the bargain bin of music and found Toxicity by System of a Down.

It was 8.99 which isn’t exactly a steal, but it was the only thing that I could find to spend my gift card on.

So how is it?

Very well done; production value is really good on this record and the tone goes from soft spoken melodious music to crash and burn metallic riffs gone wild. From hardcore to post metal, the boys in System of a Down pull through a lot of musical influences with layered guitar and drum textures, meanwhile the bass player is frenetic enough to follow his own course and not lose track of the over all theme.

A political underlying message is seen through out the entire disc, but the average person won’t really care about that, they’ll just care about the heavy music onslaught carried through this critically praised, grammy nominated masterpiece.

Fusing elements of straight forward rock, metal, hardcore, and world music, System of a Down presents a great foundation of what was ahead of them. This being their sophomore release, they hadn’t run through the nu-metal gambit just yet, and were still a force to contend with.

Toxicity is an essential album for fans of metal, hardcore and heavy music in general. Serj Tankian chooses words wisely without forcing his hand, and everything seems cohesive and up to par with the voices of a generation lost.

In the political turmoil that we find ourselves today, Toxicity is still a good album to throw in alongside Rage Against the Machine and Public Enemy. Although their style is not hip hop hardcore, or nu-metal in my opinion.

Here’s the tracklisting:

1. Prison Song
2. Needles
3. Deer Dance
4. Jet Pilot
5. X
6. Chop Suey
7. Bounce
8. Forest
9. ATWA
10. Science
11. Shimmy
12. Toxicity
13. Psycho
14. Aerials

More information? Here’s what wikipedia states in regards to the album:

“Toxicity is System of a Down’s second album release. Produced by Rick Rubin, Toxicity was released on September 4, 2001 by American Recordings, debuting at #1 on both the United States and Canadian charts. It was the number one album in America during the week of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Toxicity received mass critical acclaim, making many end-of-year “best of” lists (such as being named SPIN Magazine’s #1 record of the year), and earning a Grammy nomination for lead single Chop Suey!. The album has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide and is multi-platinum in the United States. It is also the only System of a Down album not to feature the Parental Advisory label, despite some minor profanity.”

Of course with such great sales, the band also created some memorable music videos, including this one from the title track of the album:

I recommend this album for fans of hardcore, punk, and metal. These guys can play their instruments and not just sit on three chords and some screams. Politically aware, frenetically paced, but with enough brains to slow down and create melodies and harmonies within their heavy set musical journey, System of a Down created a masterpiece.