You know I don’t consider myself the most politically minded of people; I mean I’m no dunce. I regularly listen to Bill Hicks and David Cross and I’ve read my fair share of Noam Chomsky books and understood them mostly (a feat not dissimilar to being able to fully understand the ‘Creator’ from the second Matrix film and then being able to explain it in simpler terms to a 5 year old). The reason I mention this is that I am trying to figure out why System of a Down are as boring as watching a documentary on channel five about the Norwegian field mouse presented by Ronan Keating (such a program does not exist, you can breath easy). Is it because I am not fully up on all current affairs? If I buy the Observer every day will SOAD’s political waffling make any more sense? The correct response to this pondering would be ‘Bullshit’, no. Of course not. Truth is most of System of a Down’s fan base wouldn’t know what a referendum was if it donned a Mr Blobby suit, sang the nation anthem and then slapped them in face. They could, however, probably sing you every line of every System song with moral sapping accuracy, own all their CDs, including that weird folktronic one that Serj did with that Armenian guy which they don’t listen to but you have to own it if you’re a proper fan don’t you?

All this makes SOAD’s ranting all the more hilarious. They are obviously preaching to the wrong crowd. It’s like trying to sell Justin Hawkins from the Darkness a pair of plain sensible trousers. Most of SOAD’s fan base doesn’t really care about recessions or over crowded jails or defence costs. All they care about is hearing the latest KROC/Kerrang approved rock, getting the t-shirt, going to the gig and getting all hot and bothered in a big mosh pit, as if trying to take self torture to a new level. (I mean I suppose it better than actually watching the band as you’d probably need binoculars to see the slogan printed on Daron’s t-shirt anyway.) In which case BYOB is perfect. They’ve rehashed the fast riffage from Toxicity and the quite chorus parts from Chop Suey and even replaced actual lyrics with shouting and wailing meaning the song is as pointless as texting in Radio One and asking for a ‘shout out’. The kids will love it though and with two albums being released in succession over 6 months you prepare yourselves for a Kerrang based overkill that will last till Christmas time, mean while I’m going to get some cotton wool to try and stop my ears from bleeding.

Ali Savafi