First time reaction to System of a Down - Vocal analysis of Toxicity 

Yes!

fuuuuuuuck me, this song can drink and has been able to for a year... does this mean I'm old? I was a freshman in high school when this came out... I think I might be old. Shit.

​​@@hyrothepyro119We all get older brother, the important thing is to enjoy this short life we got

It's legendary. SOAD is so good, and nostalgic.

I know right, i was thinking the same thing

We took it for granted something serious.

Man I bought this album when it first came out. Had never heard anything like it. Why did it have to end

Amen.

the truth. . . the pain. . .

Holey.... Why did you have to say that. 😢

really. this girl is just trying to get clicks

@@kevincollins8773 bro wtf??? she just gave her feeling, and is the same to all of us

Came here to say that. My first thought when she said that was "well, it *is* quite obvious you've never listened to SOAD. Tone change is pretty much their entire schtick.

OP needs to give the entire album a listen... hell all of the albums... even some of serj's solo stuff is good

isnt he opera trained now

All older artist didnt need any training lol. The new age sucks if they need training.

@@LazyNinjass lmao it's cute you think that

Amo su cara!

underrated is the right word

one of the best vocalists currently on the planet. there are a few thousand of them, but there are billions of people.

Nothing but facts here... that man has been so slept on for his vocals

Honestly I reference some of the song lyrics sometimes. Not only that, but I saw lyrics spray painted from one of System of a Down’s songs in Huston TX

I don't think it's even slightly fair to say he's underrated. I grew up during the nu-metal era and let's be clear: most of the rest of the scene they were a part of has more or less been forgotten. System of a Down and Serj Tankian are already considered the high points of the era and worthy of a place in the rock/metal pantheon. They have their immortality and history has already decided that they're the ones to remember.

You’re right. A friend burned me their self titled album in 2002, he was a weird guy hahah. But that was just before they got huge with Toxicity. I remember going home and putting on that CD and being so intrigued.

I was on a high school trip to the Stratford festival. A buddy overheard limp bizkit on my discman… he handed me a soad cd and said if you like that, you’re gonna love this haha. 1999 and I still remember hearing sugar for the first time

THE KOMBUCHA MUSHROOM PEOPLE, SITTING AROUND. ALL. DAY!!!!!!!

Got a free cd with a magazine that had War on it 🤘

It’s like the first time we heard Rage Against The Machine. SOAD and RATM are both totally unique. No other bands will be like them. They are totally them.

WAS????

As if these reaction videos are real. "20/30-year-old reacts to huge thing everything knows, somehow has never heard/seen it". Give me a break.

You’ll see that with a lot of react channels Some people just never really expand their musical pallet when system was attheir peek

⁠@@thatoneguy9437she watched Serj pick up the microphone and heard his inhale, that’s how she knew he was about to start singing.

​@@matthewjroberts90yea some are bullshit but I believe her reaction. Also I've just never heard system on the radio.

They are still together?

@@orlagskapten9829something like that, they still do concerts but no new music

@@orlagskapten9829 last I heard they disbanded because Serj wanted to pursue other things. They do get together occasionally and do concerts. One is coming up this summer but them actually being together and producing new songs isn’t something I’ve heard about except the one song they did a few years back.

@@DarknessNeverSleeps Serj wanted to pursue other things ..... There is more to the story. Serj occasionally coming back for performances says more about his character .... He still wishes the best for his bandmates even when they did him dirty

absolutely .. aerials

Question!

B.Y.O.B. 'nough said

Lonely day

I seem to be in the minority that I hate the guitarist's vocal. There's a couple of songs he ruins for me 😂🤦. Why would you have him sing when you have Serj?!

Well put!

@@nikospapageorgiou2345 Thanks. Not only common there but also in Arabic, Persian, Armenian, Kurdish music etc as far as I know.

that a popular singing technic in Indonesia too , especially for dangdut / melayu song , and in Indonesia we called it " cengkok "

I know exactly what you mean, and I think it's best shown on their song Deer Dance (sorry if you know all this): The second verse goes "A political call, the fall guy accord", just before the "We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train" line. It's such a great melody line that SOAD do so well.

True observation. Also interestingly other artists like the Seattle based Layne Staley (R.I.P. Layne) in Alice and chains do this naturally in his vocals without the Eastern influence. Check out her video on "Down In a Hole" by Alice in Chains. Melismata is just a very cool technique in vocals.

I have tears for some dumb ass reason. Lol

Ha, the uncertainty she was going through the first time through the into was killing me. I forgot what its like to hear SOAD for the first time. Those sudden switches in tone are my favorite thing about them.

Wait a minute?! Do they still have gigs?!

@@Mariangelmtdefinitely not as much as before, but they’re on tour this year for sick new world. the lineup is so good

My word exactly. One of the most outspoken, true, heavy, melodic, and most BEAUTIFUL bands to every grace earth.

The most original and creative band since Faith No More.

Saw them 20 years ago and again a month ago in Vegas!!! Amazing

Wish they fix there differences and come out with a new album

They also the most funny music

YES PLEASE!!!❤

Not to mention they got Grammy for it. But Chop Suey is always a safe choice when it comes to picking SOAD's song for a reaction video.

I haven't been a bit SOAD fan but arrieal did it for me.... now im going to check their whole album.

@@soadfanbg even aerial

@@ashwin.unlead *Aerials

Huge her reaction makes me cry

For real. I’m on the third song. The other two were tool. Watching her enjoy something so awesome to me is making me tear up. Lol

Makes me wonder what rock she has been living under😅 Like watching a colorblind person see color for the first time. It's been interesting also to see someone who I assume comes from a classical background (correct me if I'm wrong) be introduced to gunge/metal. There is such a different thought process about the relationship between the vocalist and the instruments. In classical it may be more like a vocalist as a performer and a piano/orchestra as accompaniment. The vocalist in these bands are definitely front and center but more often than not they are playing their voice as an instrument with the band. This is a big contrast in my mind between 80s pop and 90s alternative. Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell, Maynard, all amazing at this. Serj does a great.job as well. Think of the vocalist as another sound texture like a different kind of guitar and your expectations come closer to what you will hear.. Think more choir with solo sections in the classical sense, but with a lot more raw emotion and intensity.

too bad it's fake. it's impossible for someone to hear this for the first time in 2023 :D

Great comment

sounds nothing like serj but another interesting voice I've always liked was Wayne Static from Static-X. Weird to hear him backstage on videos and speaking regularly. RIP

Who is chewy??

We car moshed (that doesn't look right to me) most weekends riding around with the album bumming. High School was fun

Well said

Exactly!

Also chop suey. Ah this has reawakened my love for them. ❤

Aerials is a work of art !

Aerials is one of the first songs I learned to play on bass guitar, my god what a legendary band

​@@user-ff5yt5dy2hYeah. Not a big hit, but the arrangement and vocals are dynamite! Some really pretty harmonies too.

Yea a top band of the Era for sure.

noooo do a vid holy shite that would be sweeeeet! the whole 1st album actually but ya Q is amazeballz 🤘😬🤘

100%

Yes, that is one of my favorite songs by them.

I remember being obsessed with that song when that album came out...I just absolutely loved it. It was right when I graduated HS and just driving around that summer jamming that album...man, good times.

Just the opening question, the controlled violence of the vocals on that track makes me tear up a bit.

Don't forget Metro from the dracula soundtrack. Or Snowblind from the Nativity in Black compilation album. To add to a Black Sabbath song... I mean come on.

@@bradprice8040 Metro is actually a cover of a Berlin song. You know, that band that did that Take My Breath Away song from Top Gun? Yeah, them. The original is pretty good though, I'd never guess it was the same band, but SoaD of course makes it so much better.

@@biothediso I know. Covers can be wild rides. Snowblind is a Black Sabbath cover. Mansion did a cover off Down in the Park originally done by Gary Numan the guy that did Cars. KMFDM did Material Girl. Good stuff.

Metro is one of the best examples of taking a song and making it their own while still paying homage to the original and still coming out great.

They did! Transcended metal, few do

Absolutely.

yeah, they definitely have that distinct sound to it. always loved hearing it paired with metal.

Hye pride!

The profundity in this band's lyrics is top notch. Easily top 5.

what do you guys think about the “sacred silence”? what is he referencing?

@@psychologicallyspeaking Death maybe? As in between death and sleep we are awake, and when we are awake we are living in a world of/in disorder?

@askhedning4610 - like that interpretation! 👍

@@psychologicallyspeaking - The sacred silence is before birth, while sleep is death. "somewhere between" is life, which is disorder compared to either of those.

SOAD members are Armenians. Armenians are considered culturally, politically and historically as Europeans although the geographic location of their country is tricky in between Europe and Asia. They are considered Europeans partly because they are predominantly Christian and their language fall under the category of being Indo-European.

@Christ of ROCK n ROLL Ah, thank you for the information. Culturally, they always struck me as having closer ties with the Middle East. That's what I get for cutting classes a bit too much 🙃 Take care ✌️

@@rickhaddad7261 It gets even more vague when you take into account that the first usage of the term Caucasian as a racial term put West Asia/Middle East and North Africa alongside Europeans as a singular group. And most European cultures have strong West to Central Asian ties through things like the Migration period, Indo-European languages and of course the Abrahamic religions. But yeah Armenia is generally considered European but honestly it's a border state like Russia and Turkey it firmly sits between both regions with strong ties to both.

@@mormacil Wow! Thank you for the information. It makes me wish I knew more about the world around me. Thanks again!

@@rickhaddad7261 No problem, wikipedia is just one click away. The Ukraine war and the US wars in the Middle East are really interesting in how they massively shape the way we look at the world. After 9/11 there came a period in which the Middle East firmly became 'the other'. It was an unnatural but not entirely new border between 'the west' and Islam. It had been created before under the crusades, Islamic invasion of Spain and the Ottomans. But at the same time, both Christianity and Islam come from the Middle East. Muslims have lived in Europe for hundreds of years at this point. Then the Ukraine war happened. And suddenly Europe exploded in size in Western media. Western media had operated in this realm where everything east of the Iron Curtain was 'the east'. Some countries there could be seen as European, mostly Central European countries. But anything east of that? Not really European, tainted former soviet states. Now everything between Ukraine and Western Europe is firmly Europe again. Effectively erasing the othering of the Cold War. The lines we draw dramatically change over time. The divide between the West and muslims will die down with time unless Iran joins an open conflict vs the West. But even then it's probably going to be Shia Islam specifically as we'd have many Islamic allies in placed like Turkey. What is part of our in-group heavily depends on politics.

such a great song.

Totally agree

Noticed the same thing. Something I think we could all relate to when hearing System for the first time; just an “oh boy, this is gonna be special”

It's the stank face

Love that 😂

Every band that has made it big has all those qualities you’ve listed there will never be another pantera Metallica megadeth the doors soad the list goes on I’m a lover of all music from every genre

I remember where I was and who I was with for sure. Blew my mind

I'd love to see someone hear Holy Mountains for the first time

@@townazier I know, everyone always recommends chop suey, byob, toxicity, and sugar, those are all good songs but nobody listens to holy mountains, soldier side, dreaming, lost in hollywood, come to thing of it, hypnotize in its entirety is not getting the attention it deserves and much more

Arguably the best SOAD song in terms of vocals.

Was he really? I heard the same thing about Rob Halford of Judas Priest... cool if he was...

No he wasn't.

I would recommend checking them out more. They may have come out during the Nu-metal genre, but they are so much more. They are a truely special group with their own sound.

@@Desu-Desu-Chan-San Thanks, I will.

@@Desu-Desu-Chan-San what are some of your favorite tunes by the band?

@@sethcashman1011 Not the one you were talking to, but my favorites are Aerials, I-E-A-I-A-I-O and Psycho. The whole Toxicity album is just amazing and I highly recommend it.

@@chiritai.marius3491 thanks, appreciate the suggestions!

While the studio version is indeed the "intended" version of most songs, there's something more visceral and personal about live performances when it comes to some bands. Some bands are absolutely shit live. They're not necessarily bad musicians, but they're not *performers*. On the other hand, there are some bands who's live performances are enhanced so much by their stage presence, crowd interaction, additional flourishes, and raw unfiltered emotion, that the live versions of songs will always be superior to their studio versions. For an example of a band who is great both in the Studio and Live, check out Band Maid. I would recommend watching the Studio version of Domination, followed by the Live video of the same song that they have on their channel. In my opinion both are great, but the Live version is better.

Iron maiden is one of the bands both good in live and studio

I concur. Also to add to that list: Holy Mountains, Question, and Hypnotize. All songs that highlight their harmonies but rarely get reacted to because they weren't singles that got visibility.

@@TheSyncos Hypnotize is great, Spiders is another favorite of mine

@@TheSyncos Holy Mountains would take an hour for her to breakdown and I want it!! That song is eerie, creepy, terrifying, powerful. Incredible song!