System of a Down - Mezmerize

Genre metal Publisher American/Columbia External Links Official Website Columbia Records American Recordings Axis of Justice

System of a Down's Mezmerize is one of those benchmark albums in which a very promising band blossoms fully. Delivering the leanest set of sharply focused material by a major artist this year, SOAD bust out of the metal ghetto for good. And in doing so, they have made one of the best albums of the year.

Unlike their previous efforts which had a tendency to lose their greater components in a sea of aimlessness, Mezmerize is a front-to-back winner. This is the first half of two albums due in 2005 for the band (the other, Hypnotize, is due in the fall) and it is dubbed the "Soldier Side." Thankfully, a brief examination of the song titles reveal that SOAD do not devote the entirety to the current quagmire in Iraq.

Instead, the one song that hits this topic the hardest, "B.Y.O.B.," also acts as the introduction to the album's tone. At once a raging tirade against those that offer up the poor for sacrifice during times of war, the song takes a sudden jarring turn towards a mainstream pop chorus. "Everybody's going to the party/Have a real good time/Dancing in the desert/Blowing up the sunshine," with the beat of the song echoing some sort of summertime party jam.

"Cigaro" takes on all the war mongers of the world, reducing their war waging ways to a typical case of male "My cock is much bigger than yours." "Radio/Video" may not be much lyrically, but the inspired vocal turns (guitarist Daron Malakian takes lead here) and even more wonky musical left turns (echoes of Fiddler on the Roof can be picked up, though they're more likely Armenian influences rather than Yiddish).

"This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song" is a blistering track that features the bizarre lyric of "Gonorrhea Gorgonzola." "Violent Pornography" tackles the increasingly sewer-like quality of television, "Choking chicks and sodomy/The kinda shit you get on your TV."

The band saves their most heartfelt take on the road our country has taken for "Sad Statue." No lyrics ring truer about the War in Iraq than the ones here: "We'll all go down in history/With a sad Statue of Liberty/And a generation that didn't agree."

Ending the album with a couple of lashings towards Hollywood, System of a Down show that, not only can a band with a conscience rock out loud and hard, they can also elevate the playing field from the mundane to the sublime.