System Of A Down’s last full-length efforts came in 2005 with the band’s “Mesmerize” and “Hypnotize” LPs. The band was one of the most successful in the metal genre throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s, but attempts to record have largely stalled with the group managing just two songs in 2020.
SOAD drummer John Dolmayan recently appeared on the “Battleline Podcast” where he detailed the reasons why the group hasn’t been able to get it together. He also made a surprising claim regarding singer Serj Tankian, who Dolmayan said doesn’t want to be there and that the band should’ve gotten a new singer years ago.
“Serj hasn’t really wanted to be in the band for a long time,” Dolmayan said.
“And quite frankly, we probably should have parted ways around 2006. We tried to get together multiple times to make an album, but there were certain rules set in place that made it difficult to do so and maintain the integrity of what System Of A Down stood for. So we couldn’t really come together and agree. And part of that is Serj’s fault, and part of that is my fault, and Shavo’s [Odadjian, System Of A Down bassist] and Daron’s [Malakian, System Of A Down guitarist] as well. But at the end of the day, if you have a majority of the band thinking one way and one person thinking the other, it’s very difficult to come together and make music thinking that person is important. And every member of this band is very important to the overall sound of the band. And you’ll know this by listening to anybody’s side projects; they’re never quite that good compared to System. In fact, I think a lot of ’em aren’t very good at all. And when you compare that to what we do together as System, you understand why the team matters and having certain talents come together and merge matter and that magic thing captured doing that matters.”
The drummer continued: “No matter what, Daron is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever seen in my life. What he does with [his side project] Scars [On Broadway] will never be on the same level or league as System. That doesn’t mean Scars is bad; it just means it’s not System. ‘Cause at the end of the day, he doesn’t have me playing drums; he doesn’t have Shavo playing bass and bringing in certain riffs and adding to Daron’s music, and he doesn’t have Serj bringing his melody and lyrics into the play. So it’s all those things that make us System.”
Dolmayan admitted the band and their singer should’ve parted ways long ago.
“I think we should have moved on, and if Serj didn’t wanna be in the band at that time, we should have just moved on and done it with somebody else. But that’s what happens when you’re loyal and you really wanna make it work; you’ll put up with things that may be detrimental to the health of the band or the health of the situation. Maybe it would have been better if we moved on and got another singer for an album or two and continued to make music and brought Serj back later if he wanted to come back. That probably would have been better. But as it is, I think we wasted 15, maybe 20 years of our lives waiting.”
System Of A Down has only one show booked for this year, and the drummer doesn’t think it’s sustainable for the band to stay together at such a slow pace.
“Look, if my wife told me that we were gonna have sex once a year, I’d be divorced,” he said. “So you figure that out for what it is … The rest of us wanna work a lot more than he does.”
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