Last Friday, the 6th, System Of A Down broke a 15-year hiatus and released two new songs, the impactful "Protect the Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz," which deal with the Armenian conflict that is destroying the country from which the members descend.
Bassist Shavo Odadjian told Araksya Karapetyan of FOX 11 about the behind-the-scenes story and motivations behind the band's releases. “He [drummer John Dolmayan ] wrote and said we needed to put everything behind us and do something. We need to be a part of this. We need to help in any way we can. This, this is bigger than us, bigger than our emotions, bigger than our feelings, bigger than our egos. Let's do this. And right away, Daron [Malakian] replied with 'here I have something that can save time',” and with that, in two weeks, the band got together and the two tracks and a music video were born.
“We were together like we’d been on tour together, played shows together, hung out together, had lunch together, had dinner together. We’re friends, you know what I mean? We’re all friends. It’s just that we weren’t being creative together,” Shavo says. “So when we got there, at first the tension was kind of high because we didn’t know how everyone was going to be, but after five minutes, we were talking, laughing about the music, how it was going to be, how we were going to help, and what it was going to do for our people. That’s the number one thing, this is what it was going to make work and help, how it was going to help our people. Because I felt like it’s like a Trojan horse, you know, it’s like we’re coming back and the world is going to listen because it’s been 15 years since we’ve done anything.”
With the release of the songs, the band also published a text explaining and delving into the challenging reality that the country is going through; click here to read it .
Click here to watch the segment with Shavo.
Check out “Protect the Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” below.
READ ALSO: Serj Tankian admits frustration over drummer John Dolmayan's political stance