Why is "Toxicity" the best System of a Down album? *EXPLICIT*-- Adrian Schneider

System of a Down is an Armenian nu-metal band formed in 1994. The band members consist of lead singer Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, drummer John Dolmayan, and bassist Shavo Odadjian. System of a Down's discography consists of only 5 albums, the latest one, Hypnotize, being released in 2005. No other projects have been made in the 19 years, with an exception of two singles, Protect the Land / Genocidal Humanoidz, released in 2020. The band took a hiatus between 2006 and 2010, but no albums have been released in the 14 years from the end of their hiatus. With the lack of content released for such a long time, it seems as if their popularity would be decreased in 2024. However, the opposite has happened--System of a Down is as popular--if not more popular--as they were in their prime. I believe it's due to their second and best album, Toxicity.

I've said before that their first album, System of a Down, is their best. The music is heavier, the vocals are heavier, and the album's feeling is much more emotional than Toxicity. Even the most popular song from their self-titled album, "Sugar", is far better than the other album's most popular song, "Chop Suey!" So why is their second album the most popular and well-liked? Why am I now saying that Toxicity is the best? System Of a Down is still my favorite album due to its rawness, but Toxicity contains such a refined mix of songs with a variety of material ranging from emotional (like Forest, ATWA, and Aerials) to non-sensical (like Needles, Bounce, and Shimmy). Going through every song on the album and explaining each one shows how it's System of a Down's best. 

 1. Prison Song

Prison Song is the first song on Toxicity. Openers are very important, needing to make an impression on the listener and set up the rest of the album's sound. The album opens with silence broken by a low-tuned guitar being struck over and over, making the song feel heavy and like it starts immediately. In between guitar chords, Serj Tankian whispers "they're trying to build a prison", which becomes repeated in the chorus. Prison Song is not subtle in being about the incarceration system, even the title of the song says so. The lyrics don't aim to be subtle anyway, with Serj reading off statistics almost like the song is presenting a case for its criticism of imprisonment rates. This song is an overall critique of the war on drugs, excessive substance use in Hollywood, and America's high incarceration rates. Although lacking the subtlety in strange lyrics, which is where System of a Down's strength usually lies, the song serves as a dissertation of America's legal system, a literal "prison song". 

2. Needles 

Needles is one of my personal favorites on the album, mainly for its absurdity. The intro switches from high-pitched guitar plucking and heavy riffs, following Prison Song with having a guitar riff as the intro. The chorus might be shocking to some--understandably, the chorus is "pull the tapeworm out of your ass" repeated--, but System of a Down is no stranger to having weird lyrics, and it fits the song's message. Needles de-glamorizes the abuse of drugs, describing it as a tapeworm, and using strange lyrics that make it feel gross. The title as well as the line "I'm sitting in my room, with a needle in my hand", are likely referring to heroin syringes. The song's tapeworm is used as a metaphor for drugs, slithering into people's bodies and stunting their growth. The tapeworm is consuming the singers, "'Til you eat the last of me, oh, when will I be free?". The chorus serves as a message to others addicted to substances, that it will be hard to be sober, as pulling a tapeworm out of your ass is, but it will free you from addiction. 

3. Deer Dance 

Deer Dance follows Prison Song's footsteps in having more straightforward lyrics, but also contains some confusing lyrics similar to Needles. Deer Dance mainly focuses on police brutality, criticizing the weapons they often use against protestors. Police are often not used as law enforcers, but rather soldiers used for fearmongering people. The pre-chorus--"Beyond the Staples Center you can see America"--references a sports arena in L.A., which shows that the image of entertainment America has is trying to suppress the violence which goes on beneath the surface. The violence police use against young people is spoken about in the chorus, "Pushing little children with their fully-automatics, they like to push the weak around". People which fight against the "Staples Center", the plastic image of America, are often brutalized by police who are highly weaponized and push the weak around. 

4. Jet Pilot

Jet Pilot is more open to interpretation, not having explicit lyrics showing what the song is about or a central theme for the song to focus. Not having a central theme can be common for System of a Down songs, but Jet Pilot is one of the only songs on Toxicity that takes a more unfocused approach to its lyrics. Since the almost statistical Prison Song and very lyrically explicit Deer Dance came before it, it works in the flow of the album to balance out other songs. As opposed to having guitar riffs begin the songs, the song immediately starts with an almost non-sensical chorus, "Wired were the eyes of a horse on a jet pilot". While Needles uses disconcerting lyrics to its advantage, sometimes System of a Down can have weird lyrics for the sake of having weird lyrics, which applies mostly to this song. Using a horse and jet pilot as a motif in the lyrics, with the horse wanting to "survey the skies", could be a metaphor for the constant advance of military weaponry. Wanting to survey the skies "right before they go gray" can also be a metaphor for different bombings throughout history. 

5. X 

X appears to be another unfocused song similar to Jet Pilot, but the intentions of the song are much  more focused than on the surface. The song repeats lyrics over and over again, "We don't need to multiply" in the beginning chorus and "We don't need to nullify" in the next chorus. Many System of a Down songs focus on the Armenian genocide of 1915, being an Armenian and political band. X is no exception. The second verse, "Show your people, show your people how we died", is a reference to the genocide. Some of the lyrics, including the initial chorus, also touch on overpopulation. "Tell the people that arrive... we don't need to multiply" shows how the growing population of places shouldn't be reserved for constantly having babies. The repetitive nature and distorted guitar of the song make it feel more groovy, contrasted with the dark subject of the song. 

6. Chop Suey! 

Chop Suey! is the most popular System of a Down song, with the music video sitting at over 1.3 billion views. It has the most "light" sound out of Toxicity's discography, but the some of the most complex lyrics, which might have contributed to its success. While I am personally not a fan of System of a Down's lighter songs, I can definitely see why this song in particular was such a hit. The intro starts with Serj Tankian saying, "We're rolling suicide", with the guitar starting shortly after. Chop Suey! follows other songs in this album for the intro, using a high-chord guitar for the intro before the drums and bass kick in. This song's themes focus on how somebody's death is regarded based on their life. "Wake up! Grab a brush and put a little makeup" is shouted at the beginning of the song, making it feel disjointed and as if it's trying to cover something up. The first verse is repeated with a "you wanted to" after each initial line. The angry lyrics blame the listener of the song, which is used as a metaphor for how people die is often blamed on them if it's self-inflicted or from substances. The line "I cry when angels deserve to die" references this, how people's deaths are often shunned as "deserved" if they were abusing drugs. The religious connotations show themselves when, in the bridge, Serj reads a Bible verse, "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit". 

7. Bounce

This song is very nonsensical, which is similar to many other songs on this album, but also far more playful than other songs like X. The chorus is only the word "pogo" repeated over and over again by Serj Tankian, with Daron Malakian and Shavo Odadjian shouting "Jump!" and "Bounce!" in between. This song, unlike others with deeper meanings, doesn't have a very deep meaning. However, there are two main interpretations of the song. The first one is that the song is simply about sex, and that the "pogo stick" is a guise for a penis. The lyrics referring to going on a date with a girl seem to make this the more plausible interpretation, especially with "Gliding through many hands" repeated in the background of the first chorus. The second interpretation is that the song is about a group of people abusing heroin, and the "pogo stick" is a guise for a needle. The pogo stick metaphor would make more sense then, and it would tie into the themes of Needles, but the songs on Toxicity tend to have separate focuses. Either interpretation could work well for this groovy mess of a song.

8. Forest

Forest is one of my personal favorite songs on the album, for its interesting lyricism and heavy riffs. The song begins with an eerie guitar riff and light drumming, before heavy bass kicking in. The first lines of the initial verse, "Walk with me, my little child, into the forest of denial", paints the singer like a deity, "My little child" being a reference to how Christianity often calls God's followers his children. The forest of denial is a metaphor for humanity's forest of denial blinding them to nature. Forest has heavy religious connotations, with the lyrics written as if an omnipotent being is saying them. The line "Turn the forest into wine" references Jesus's ability to turn water into wine, which can be interpreted as organized religion overconsuming nature and corrupting people's vision. This song's heavy instrumental calls the listener's attention to the destruction of the natural world, that people's connections to the earth has been lost in a forest of denial. 

9. ATWA

ATWA, one of my personal favorite songs, stands for "Air, Trees, Water, and Animals", which was an environmentalist system and group started by the cult leader Charles Manson. Daron Malakian has said some of Charles Manson's beliefs on society and life--not the cult-creating beliefs--are interesting to him, and the song was meant as a reflection of his life in prison. ATWA is a reflection from the perspective of Manson showing how his life in prison affected him. The song is also a bigger critique of how media only depicts one side of a person, similar to how Charles Manson's ideas were not depicted on TV. The lyrics "You don't care about how I feel, I don't feel there anymore" are meant to show Manson's apathetic nature after being imprisoned for life. Manson's potentially interesting ideas are now tied to a detached cult leader who spent his life in prison, essentially wasting them. The riffs are heavy and emotional, with backing vocals sung by Daron Malakian. The lyric "All the world I've seen around me passing by" is meant to represent how Manson sees the world around him in prison--he's seen it passing by. 

10. Science

Science resumes the beginning of the song being a high-pitched guitar riff. Unlike ATWA, which featured backing vocals from Daron complementing Serj Tankian's voice, this song contains no backing vocals. Science is a critique on the modern ever-expanding ideas of science, and how it has overtaken people's spiritual connections to nature. The pre-chorus, "Science fails to recognize the most potent element of human existence", highlights how the ultra-dependence of technology which modern society has doesn't help people spiritually. Without a balance between religion and discipline, the spiritual well-being of humans will be ignored. The "science" which Serj sings about can also be alluded to the overconsumption that technology has brought. the chorus, "Science has failed our mother Earth", alludes to how in trying to understand earth, science has detracted from the importance of nature and connecting with the world around you. 

11. Shimmy 

Shimmy takes another fast-paced approach to the song, similar to the quick and gnarly sound of Bounce. The guitar intro is still present here, using a crunchy-sounding tune. One of the motifs used in this song is school, with "Don't be late for school again, boy" shouted for the outro. The song is about indoctrination in general, using school as an example of it. The second verse, "Education, fornication, in you are, go... Education, subjugation, now you're out, go", speaks to how children's education are not valued over simply churning them through the school system. Being late for school interrupts showing up on time, which breaks the routine academics intend to keep them entrapped in. The system attempts to prepare children as factory workers rather than individual people, making not following their routine of time a negative thing. It encourages children to develop a conforming mind rather than critically think on their own, making sure they aren't "late for school again". In the chorus, Serj sings about wanting "a house and a wife", which is the idealized image after school and college, to settle down with a house and a wife. Everybody wants to have the American dream, but gets indoctrinated in the process of chasing that dream. 

12. Toxicity 

Toxicity is one of the most popular songs on this album, and similar to the other popular song, Chop Suey!, it contains a group of meanings that work in tandem within its lyrics. In general, the song is about A.D.H.D, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The lyrics don't directly reference A.D.H.D.--I had no idea it was about A.D.H.D. until I saw the band interviews--but through analysis, they do seem to speak about it. "Eating seeds as a pastime activity" is sung during the pre-chorus, is a reference to medication used on children with behavioral disorders. Many of the lyrics also talk about government oppression against people in poverty. "You, what do you own the world? How do you own disorder?" speaks to how controlling governmental forces can be, despite not helping the people of their community. "How do you own disorder?" also ties into the theme of A.D.H.D., criticizing others' attempt to control effectively "own" the disorder by over-medicating it. Overall, Toxicity is a song about control, using A.D.H.D. and people in poverty as an example as the people in power try to take control over other people's minds. 

13. Psycho 

Psycho's lyrics waste no time before going straight into Serj Tankian screaming, "Psycho! Groupie! Cocaine! Crazy!". This very fast-paced song is less subtle in its lyrical content, judging by the intro alone. It's one of the only System of a Down songs to feature a guitar solo as the outro, which closes the quick lyrics out nicely. The lyrics are about drug abuse, simply put, as is common for System of a Down songs. The chorus repeats the first line before saying, "Makes you high, makes you hide", which alludes to drug abuser's tendencies to withdraw socially. There is a long history of drug abuse in Hollywood, which is the aspect of drug abuse that this song focuses on. The lyrics question the listener, "So you want the world to stop?...Do you really want to think and stop?" The world stopping is a common sensation for drug users, but the song uses an almost mocking tone when speaking about this. "Do you really want to think and stop?" discourages the listener from actually reflecting about drug use, which is what Hollywood people often do. They don't stop abusing drugs, and make it part of their character. This abuse of drugs can turn stars into a psycho.

14. Aerials 

Aerials begins with an almost haunting bass intro, drawing the listener in and giving the song an eerie feeling. Serj's singing is emotional, "Life is a waterfall, we're one in the river and one again after the fall". The figure of a waterfall is used throughout the songs, and as the lyrics say, it represents life. The fall is death, and being "one again after the fall" shows humanity as a collective, united in life and death. Aerials is about life, death, and individualism, using the motif of a waterfall to explain the themes. The lyrics "Swimming through the void, we hear the word, we lose ourselves but we find it all" refers to how by going through life, or the void, we can lose our sense of individualism to exploitation. "Aerials in the sky" is the first line in the chorus and uses the word aerials again, another term used for radio antennae. Aerials are a sign of something in the sky, something unattainable. Radio antennae constantly broadcast news, with different agendas being pushed and ideals being glamorized. "When you lose small mind, you free your life" is the next line of the chorus, showing that when you lose the mindset of conformity and abuse, your sense of self and happiness can be reclaimed again. Losing "small mind" can also be a metaphor for people's close-minded idea of death, often being averse to it. But, life is a waterfall that is constantly moving, and it's important not to lose yourself to it. 

15. Arto 

Arto has no lyrical content that I can analyze, but it is mainly an instrumental made by an Armenian musician for churches. 

Track Ranking for Toxicity:

1. Aerials

2. Forest

3. ATWA

4. Needles

5. Toxicity

6. Chop Suey!

7.  Shimmy

8. X

9.  Science

10. Bounce

11. Psycho

12. Prison Song 

13. Deer Dance

14. Jet Pilot

15. Arto