I owe a lot to System of a Down. I've always liked hard rock and heavier stuff, but I put the blame on them for leading me down the road to metal. Even before I liked metal there was just something about System of a Down that drew me in, regardless of how heavy they got. It's a shame that they went on, and still are, on hiatus now because they were, and still are unfortunately one of the most unique bands the have come out in recent years. And even more unfortunate, I think they released their best CD yet in Hypnotize.
Hypnotize came out in late 2005 and has since gotten a lot of negative responses from fans, but i'm of the opposing side and think it's one of their strongest albums. It has the quirkiness, the chaos, the deep and thoughful lyrics, and the beautiful melodies and harmonies that you'd come to expect from System of a Down, and sometimes combined them all in one.
1. Attack - Pretty basic System of a Down song all in all. Soft verses that burst into fast heavy choruses. Nothing really stands out in this song, but it's still a solid song.
2. Dreaming - One of the highlights of Hypnotize and is System of a down at their best. The verses are what I mean about them being chaotic, yet it all somehow works and sounds great. One of my favorite tracks vocally; the harmonies between Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian are so simple yet so effective, especially the end "Dreaming of Screaming/Someone kick me out of my mind/I hate these thoughts I can't deny" part.
3. Kill Rock & Roll - The one thing you can expect from System of a Down are Serj and Daron's vocal harmonies and they save this song. This song is another basic System of a Down song, but the vocals make it memorable.
4. Hypnotize - The title track and a very good one. Very simple, and it doesn't stray much, but it's still very memorable somehow.
5. Stealing Society - Things get kind of weird with this song, especially the bridge, but overall this is good song.
6. Tentative - The closest song resembling System of a Down's Toxicity days. Serj takes over singing on this song mostly, and reminds us why he is such a good singer. Very eerie song coupled with the lyrics "We're going down/In a spiral to the ground/No one, no one's going to save us now/Not even God.
7. U-Fig - Another weird and quirky song that has always been a favorite of mine. Gets kind of repetitive after awhile, but ultimately gets easily stuck in your head.
8. Holy Mountains - The second best song on the whole CD. I can't say how good this song is apparently about the Armenian genocide, and this song conveys the sadness, and anger towards it perfectly. Great song all around.
9. Vicinity of Obscenity - Things get really weird now with this song and the next one. This song is okay, but i can never take it seriously. Starts off System of a Down-like, but cuts into an almost smooth jazz section. If i didn't know them better, i'd think they really like their banana terracotta pie, but the song is a bit different than that...
10. She's Like Heroin - Equally weird, apparently Daron wrote this song, and wasn't that great of a decision. This song isn't anything but weird.
11. Lonely Day - Another song wrote by Daron, and it contains one the worst, and laughable lyrics grammatically in the chorus with "The most loneliest day of my life." The vocals and their harmonies absolutely save this song.
11. Lonely Day - Another song wrote by Daron, and it contains one the worst, and laughable lyrics grammatically in the chorus with "The most loneliest day of my life." The vocals and their harmonies absolutely save this song.
12. Soldier Side - First hearing a little bit of this song in the intro to Mesmerize, this is easily the best song ever written by System of a Down, and makes listening to the last three songs worth it. Just listen to the vocals! The Harmonies! The guitars! This song is perfect, yet very depressing.
While this album does contain some questionable filler, it more than makes up for it with the good songs. The best songs on Hypnotize all happen to be the more serious ones, which I don't think is a coincidence, so if System of a Down does ever come back from their hiatus, I will definitely be looking forward to hearing more songs like those because they write them beautifully.
