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SERJ TANKIAN, ELECT THE DEAD
Dorian Lynskey
The Guardian
Friday October 26, 2007
Buy Elect the Dead now
Serj Tankian is the frontman of Armenian-American metal agitators
System of a Down - and he comes across as an improbable hybrid
of Frank Zappa, Jello Biafra, Sepultura's Max Cavalera, a Balkan
protest singer and someone on a street corner with a megaphone and a
placard announcing the end times. Here, without the berserk velocity of
System's guitarist Daron Malakian, he is a little more conventional and
a little less interesting. At its most urgent, on Empty Walls or The
Unthinking Majority, Elect the Dead resembles a demented heavy-metal
musical about the last days of the American empire.
Tankian's earnest emo croon is less engaging; by the umpteenth wailing
chorus of break-up song Saving Us, you might feel like dumping him,
too. But even playing with a relatively straight bat, he is the
only multi-platinum rock star on the planet who would write a song
about how "civilisation is on trial" and think, "Ah, the perfect
title! 'Beethoven's Cunt'."
Dorian Lynskey
The Guardian
Friday October 26, 2007
Buy Elect the Dead now
Serj Tankian is the frontman of Armenian-American metal agitators
System of a Down - and he comes across as an improbable hybrid
of Frank Zappa, Jello Biafra, Sepultura's Max Cavalera, a Balkan
protest singer and someone on a street corner with a megaphone and a
placard announcing the end times. Here, without the berserk velocity of
System's guitarist Daron Malakian, he is a little more conventional and
a little less interesting. At its most urgent, on Empty Walls or The
Unthinking Majority, Elect the Dead resembles a demented heavy-metal
musical about the last days of the American empire.
Tankian's earnest emo croon is less engaging; by the umpteenth wailing
chorus of break-up song Saving Us, you might feel like dumping him,
too. But even playing with a relatively straight bat, he is the
only multi-platinum rock star on the planet who would write a song
about how "civilisation is on trial" and think, "Ah, the perfect
title! 'Beethoven's Cunt'."