SYSTEM OF A DOWN — Toxicity (review)

SYSTEM OF A DOWN — Toxicity album cover Album · 2001 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Pekka
I had heard a few songs from their debut by the time Toxicity came out, but as for hundreds of thousands of other people, it was Chop Suey! from this album that got me hooked on System of a Down. Mad start-stop rhythms, guitar picked like a balalaika, a powerful vocal performance and the seamless slide from aggressive metal to an emotional piano-flavored finale make this one a true modern metal classic.

But here it's just a song among the others. With their second album SoaD got faster and heavier than before in songs like Jet Pilot and Bounce, and elsewhere more impressively emotional like in ATWA and the brilliant closer Aerials. And in between we get several brilliant modern metal masterworks like Prison Song, Deer Dance, Forest and Psycho.

The little that Toxicity loses to its predecessor in out of control reckless insanity, it gains in a more organized attack, more streamlined (I'm not necessarily saying better) production and its extremes being spread more apart. A killer follower for a killer album.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Reclamation Of I Metalcore
IMMINENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 2 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us