Serj Tankian
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=54725
Printed Date: February 03 2025 at 05:54
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Topic: Serj Tankian
Posted By: Diaby
Subject: Serj Tankian
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 02:36
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What do you think about him? I only know his solo album Elect the Dead, but it's pretty good. Anyone heard that one? ------------- yeah |
Replies:
Posted By: Moatilliatta
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 14:24
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Not into his solo stuff at all, but his work in System of a Down is great. ------------- www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph  
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Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 15:12
| System was a great band, hopefully they get off their hiatus soon because the member's solo projects have been luke-warm at best. I bought Elect The Dead when it came out last year and was quite disappointed. Some good stuff there, but he clearly needs Derek to help him write, as does Derek need Serj as proven by Scars On Broadway. |
Posted By: The Pessimist
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 15:56
Ditto Mike, SOAD were fantastic. I currently have the albumsHypnotize/ Mesmerize and Toxicity and I like what I hear. Reminds me of Summer 08  Haven't heard any of the dude's solo stuff though, but from what I've heard it's nothing on SOAD.------------- "Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value." Arnold Schoenberg |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 20:34
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I have to agree with these guys. I haven't heard much of either, but it seems that both Serj's solo stuff and Scars on Broadway are poor man's System of a Down. Generic alt-metal at some times, and annoyingly weird at others. System made some great alt-metal, and their quirkier songs were really creative. And "Question!" might as well be better than most prog-metal material I've heard here. ------------- 
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Posted By: BroSpence
Date Posted: January 13 2009 at 23:34
| I think I heard the single from his solo album and maybe turned it off halfway through or something. It wasn't very interesting. However, SOAD were quite good. Although a bit repetitive and short on verses, but they provide some many interesting elements of quirky, psychotic, Armenian, pop/metal. Which you don't hear everyday. Their first album kind of stinks though. A bit too juvenile musically, in my opinion. |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 02:36
Their first album was just that, a first album  . But you can't argue with "war" and "Peephole" - awesome tracks. I've seen them listed on some prog sites and I disagree with that - but they certainly are some of th ebest alt-metal bands out there. Hypnotize remains on my top-something of all time. Great pair of albums, I hope they can top them. Furthermore: Psycho, groupie, cocain, crazy. that is all. |
Posted By: Diaby
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 11:53
I found Elect the Dead very interesting, however, there are few songs I dislike. A bit surprising, that allmusic labels it as "Neo-Prog"  ------------- yeah |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 11:57
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Wow. Allmusic is dumb |
Posted By: The Pessimist
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 17:38
Tune  My favourite System song. Maybe. I think it's marginally beaten by ATWA.Oh and about "Question?". 5/4 BABY!  ------------- "Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value." Arnold Schoenberg |
topofsm wrote:Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 20:43
... And 6/8, and 9/8, and 4/4.
-------------
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Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 21:56
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Serj's voice is pretty amazing. (My personal description is a cross between Jello Biafra, Mike Patton and a man from Mars.)
I've only heard the single from EtD. I also heard some of the Serart project. Not as good as prime System.
------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken |
Posted By: Plankowner
Date Posted: January 14 2009 at 23:08
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I'm a system fan.. was really disappointed with his solo album, think I've spun it like twice? I also have the serart cd, it's certainly different.. I'll have to give it a spin soon.
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Posted By: The Pessimist
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:03
And some SICK drumming. Cheers Harry, I'm now a " " addict ------------- "Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value." Arnold Schoenberg |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:18
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I'll stick my oar in here in support of SOAD fans - I've only got/heard Toxicity & it's one of the most played albums on the iPod (great driving music) - I did hear a couple of tracks from Serj's solo album a while ago, but have to say they didn't stick in my mind at all... just sounded flat by comparison to SOAD.
Great voice (extremely versatile too), highly intelligent lyricist - get SOAD back together 
[edit] Bears a striking resemblance to one of the greats, too:  ------------- 
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:21
Wow Jim, I wouldn't have expected you to be in on the band  You should try out Mesmerize/Hypnotize, they're an excellent pair of albums. |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:27
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You'd be surprised - The first time I heard 'Chop Suey' I knew this was a band I needed to investigate - went out & bought Toxicity only to find Chop Suey was possibly the weakest track on an otherwise powerful, intelligent, incisive, funny (nearly wet myself the first time I hear 'Pogo' ) & (lets face it) balls-out rocking album
+++ As I remember though, our forum friend Peter wasn't too keen when I tried to convert him  -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:44
My friend's brother used to blast "Chop Suey" and "BOOM!" from "Steal This Album" in his car driving us to school back in ye-olden-days, so it was only a matter of time until I hunted down Toxicity. I can actually remember the day that each of Mesmerize and Hypnotize came out because my friends and I held a listening party in my parent's basement (although I suppose this second part of the story was only about 4 years ago  ). Hypnotize was such a big release at the time that pretty much everyone I knew at the school was yacking about it, and even had t-shirts to preempt the album - they even played the whole album on the local radio the night before it was released.But I guess not all of Canada feels the same way. Peter will never know what he's missing out on  |
Posted By: Plankowner
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 12:25
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*BOUNCE* |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 15 2009 at 12:27
| She had so many friends!!! |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: January 16 2009 at 00:21
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Pogo pogo pogo pogo pogo pogo pogo!
In another discussion:
Banana banana banana teracotta banana terracotta terracotta pie!!!!
Yes indeed, singing SOAD lyrics has to be one of the funnest things you could do. Really great intelligent band, don't see why people hate them so much. -------------
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Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 16 2009 at 02:40
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A while ago, the BBC in the UK made an hour long documentary on the band which was well worth a watch; the interviews with Tankian revealing his depth of feeling toward getting recognition of the Armenian Genocide in 1914/1918 (a subject I've only heard from musicians before from Diamanda Galas) -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 20 2009 at 06:43
Just read reviews of these 2...
Bought! -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 20 2009 at 11:17
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Excellent! You simply MUST let us know what you think of them
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Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 20 2009 at 11:28
I shall hold you personally responsible for any disappointment incurred by said purchases  -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 20 2009 at 12:17
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Hey, it cant possibly be as bad as when Brian convinced me to buy Union. I'm serious ... and I did!!! |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 21 2009 at 02:28
You're young, you weren't to know... -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Atavachron
Date Posted: January 21 2009 at 02:40
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Union has a few moments, maybe, now and then.. hey it was '91, weren't many oldtime proggers out there |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 21 2009 at 06:39
Yes - but they'd already made us suffer the horrors of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe  , was Union really necessary?
Aaaanyway - back on track - I'm looking forward to receiving these two System Of A Down albums almost as much as I'm looking forward to playing them to Peter -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 02:43
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Both albums now arrived & as it was the first to drop on my doormat, I've been listening intensively to Hypnotise this weekend.
Didn't know what to make of it at first (Malakian takes a lot more of the vocals than on Toxicity, so changed the vibe a bit), but once I got where they were coming from I couldn't stop listening to it. I know I should have listened to Mesmerise first, but if it's anywhere near as strong as Hypnotise, I'll be a happy man. King By Tor: Many thanks for the recommendation -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 10:48
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Ahhh! Good to hear! Personally I prefer Hypnotize, I find it stronger on the whole as an "album", while I find that Hypnotise puts more efforts into the individual songs. Of course, that means that Mesmerize has some of their best songs like "Question!" and "Holy Mountains". Of course, Hypnotize has "Solder Side", which may well be their all-time best achievement in my eyes. Putting it on now, actually you're welcome! Glad I could be of service.
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Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 11:23
OOPS! Holy Mountains is also on Hypnotize. Well, Mesmerize does have Sad Statue and, Violent Pornography and Radio/Video awesome tunes |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 11:34
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'ang on - I'm getting really confused now... did I listen to Hypnotise or Mesmerise first
+++checks Amazon for track listings+++ Nope - definitely Hypnotise (even iTunes got confused yesterday when I uploaded it to the iPod...) -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 11:38
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ah well, okay - that makes sense. You're gunna love Hypnotize Have you connected the two cases yet? |
Posted By: Moatilliatta
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 19:08
I think "Question!" is their all-time best achievement personally, and I prefer Mezmerize. It's a bit more fun. I do love both, though. Glad to see some positive discussion about these guys! It seems, however, that we're having a tough time naming the correct album titles, haha. ------------- www.last.fm/user/ThisCenotaph
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Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 26 2009 at 22:30
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Question! Is an amazing track. I think from Mesmerize I prefer Sad
Statue. But like I said, I will always stick with Soldier Side as my
favorite track of all time of theirs, although others do come close -
The Metro, Inner Vision, Toxicity, Aerials, War, Peephole, Atwa, Deer
Dance (and the list goes on... )
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Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 27 2009 at 02:09
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What? No mention of Holy Mountain?
Have to admit that came on the iPod this morning on the way into work & ended up being played three times at silly volume - Jeez knows what the other drivers thought of this middle aged guy singing lustily along to the chorus... Liar! Killer! Demon!!!
+++sigh+++ What sort of behaviour is that for a 45 year old? -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 27 2009 at 10:53
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Sounds pretty awesome to me And hey! I did mention Holy Mountains, remember, it's up the page - I couldn't figure out which album it was on |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 27 2009 at 11:36
Damn this senility  -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: topofsm
Date Posted: January 27 2009 at 21:15
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The only thing I don't really like about the Mezmerize/Hypnotize albums is that mixed in with some really great tunes you get a ton of formulaic similar sounding songs. "Attack", "Dreaming", "Tentative", "Stealing Society", and "Sad Statue" are all pretty much the same song and I can rarely remember which one is which when I hear one on shuffle. However, most of it is really good IMO. -------------
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Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: January 28 2009 at 02:54
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Stuck in traffic this morning, so've been listening to Mesmerize for the first time (as have most of the cars around me )... , mind you, 'Cigaro' is a bit rude
Again, KBT - many thanks for the recommendations
That's the problem with many albums - sooner or later, there are usually 'filler' tracks... some better than others - although, I'd not consider 'Attack' to be a filler or formulaic -------------
Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Queen By-Tor
Date Posted: January 28 2009 at 03:01
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Oh, Cigaro At least you have Revenga and Radio/Video on either end of it. Anyways, glad you enjoyed it Those are a couple of my favorite albums of all time (I do say that about a lot of album, though ). |
Posted By: mkearney_913
Date Posted: January 30 2009 at 19:11
| His album was hit and miss for me. The political drive just seems pointless without the rest of SOAD. Solid band but, all in all, I never really got into them. |