It is onerous to think about now, however there was a time when System Of A Down wasn’t the family identify it’s as we speak. Regardless of now boasting Billboard-topping albums and songs which have surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, their early days as a gap act have been removed from glamorous. Actually, for a band as unconventional as System Of A Down, hostility was nearly a ceremony of passage.
The late ’90s have been a distinct period for steel. Dominated by the likes of Metallica, Korn, Pantera, and Marilyn Manson, the scene wasn’t precisely primed for a gaggle of Armenian-American musicians mixing heavy steel, punk, Armenian people influences, and avant-garde absurdity. That dissonance turned manifestly evident throughout a defining second in 1998 when System Of A Down joined Slayer on tour.
In his 2024 memoir, Down With The System, frontman Serj Tankian recounts (by way of Metal Hammer) the expertise as a trial by hearth. “We have been opening for Slayer, which was an enormous alternative for a band who hadn’t but launched their first album,” he writes. “However that tour was like going to rock ‘n’ roll boot camp. Slayer followers famously love Slayer and hate nearly all the pieces and everybody else.”
Slayer followers are a breed unto themselves — intense, loyal, and unyielding of their preferences. As Serj recollects, their reception was lower than welcoming: “As their opening act, the group noticed us because the one factor standing between them and Slayer.”
The mismatch between System of a Down’s flamboyant stage presence — full with tribal make-up and pink hair — and the rugged Slayer aesthetic solely heightened the strain. “This was a gaggle of followers for whom ‘home made’ knife-carved tattoos weren’t uncommon, so once we’d flip up – me in tribal make-up, Daron [Malakian, guitarist] sporting pink hair and a glammy little outfit, they weren’t essentially predisposed to welcome us with open arms. Actually, once we’d take the stage, we would usually be going through a wall of crossed arms and prolonged center fingers,” Serj notes, portray a vivid image of the crowds they confronted.
Regardless of the animosity, the band’s willpower to win over the viewers by no means wavered. Serj displays that their “sheer moxie finally began profitable followers over,” at the same time as some nights devolved into chaos.
At a very memorable present in Utah, a sudden rainstorm pressured the cancellation of the live performance, unleashing a torrent of frustration: “Typically, although, shit simply bought out of hand. At a present in Utah, when it began to rain, the live performance was canceled, a lot to the dismay of the followers who’d turned up there. Trash began flying, fights broke out everywhere, and I jumped behind our merch desk to assist our merch individual pack up all our stuff. After a couple of minutes, I spotted it was a misplaced trigger.”
Whereas some in Slayer‘s fanbase finally got here round, Serj additionally remembers moments of open hostility that crossed the road. One notably tense incident pushed him to his limits, resulting in a response that left a whole room of Slayer followers shocked into silence — a uncommon feat in a crowd so notoriously vocal.
“A small subset of Slayer followers had a disturbing apply of displaying as much as gigs in full Nazi regalia. I distinctly recall watching a staff of African-American bouncers at a membership in Detroit known as Harpos brawling with these Slayer followers outdoors the membership after we would completed our set,” he recalled.
“Later that yr, whereas we have been touring with Slayer via Europe, we have been onstage in Poland being pelted with cash by followers who have been additionally elevating Nazi salutes in our path. At one level, I used to be hit within the face with a bagel and I misplaced my shit,” Serj admits.
“I informed our lighting man to level the lights into the viewers and goal the bagel-thrower. Then I launched into an offended tirade and threatened to start out kicking individuals’s asses. Once I completed, the venue went useless silent. You possibly can actually hear a pin drop in that place. Then we walked off.”
Even after the discharge of their now-classic debut album, System Of A Down continued to face resistance throughout Slayer‘s European tour. However the band discovered inventive methods to win over audiences. Daron Malakian humorously recalled their tactic in Berlin: “I stated, ‘Look, if these guys do not applaud for us after we play the primary tune, Know, we’re gonna play it once more, again and again, till they react.'”
When the group stayed silent after the primary efficiency, the band restarted the tune. “Midway via, they have been really cheering for us,” Daron remembers. “My angle was, ‘You are gonna love us whether or not you prefer it or not.'”
Finally, System of a Down’s persistence paid off, and by the discharge of Toxicity in 2001, they’d cemented their place as one of the crucial beloved — and nonetheless splendidly unusual — bands in steel historical past.
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