Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian's solo debut is as spastic fantastic and lyrically incensed with political pap and societal stains as anything by his band, System of a Down, but with a ballsier, experimental tack. "Money" and "Feed Us" have the slow-quick melodicism of Tool, "Praise the Lord..." takes the quote of a WWII chaplain to funkland, and "The Unthinking Majority" and "Sky is Over" unite metal and classical into sing-alongs for the manic depressive. And just when the guttural release of rage reaches its threshold, Tankian makes like a phantom alone at his piano on the closing, weepy "Elect the Dead."

First the good news: With his solo debut, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian didn't try
to make an electro-pop album or acoustic-folk opus. In fact, Elect the Dead is nearly as
decadently weird and furiously propulsive as System's art-metal records were: Serrated
guitars and madman rants bump up against pained, slo-mo choruses and speed-punk
splatter, occasionally within the song. Sometimes, the strange little frills work --... More >