Toxicity by System of a Down
Toxicity is the second studio album by Armenian-American heavy metal band System of a Down, released on September 4, 2001, through American Recordings and Columbia Records. Expanding on their 1998 eponymous debut, it incorporated more melody, harmonies, and singing than the band's aforementioned album. Categorized primarily as alternative metal and nu metal, Toxicity features elements of multiple genres including folk, progressive rock, jazz, Armenian music and Greek music, including prominent use of instruments such as the sitar, banjo, keyboards, and piano. It contains a wide array of political and non-political themes, such as mass incarceration, the CIA, the environment, police brutality, drug addiction, scientific reductionism, and groupies.
There is nothing subtle about <i>Toxicity</i>: With uncompromising politics and vicious satire, art-metal surrealists System of a Down go for the jugular. Society is sick and dying, and singer Serj Tankian can’t decide if he’s delighted, disgusted or both. "Shimmy" and the title cut are dizzyingly complex, rage-fuelled monstrosities, and “Psycho” is even more spastic. With shuddering, start-stop rhythms, the band go absolutely ballistic while Tankian shouts about cocaine, groupies and madness. The spooky, Middle Eastern-tinged "Arto" fittingly closes out this end-of-days soundtrack.
