System of a Down is the debut studio album by the nu metal band System of a Down, released on June 30, 1998, by American Recordings and Columbia Records.
The band released 2 singles in support of their album: Sugar, released on May 24, 1998, and Spiders, released on February 10, 1999.
It is ironically the only System of a Down album to not say their name on the album cover. The album was certified gold by the RIAA in February 2000. After the success of the band’s following album, Toxicity (2001), System of a Down was certified platinum.
The album is generally considered nu metal and alternative metal, both of which would become staples for the band. Lyrical themes throughout the album vary, with many songs following a theme of being anti-war, but also has topics of genocide, religion, and brainwashing.
Suite-Pee is a criticism of pedophilia within the Church and religious extremism. Soil is, according to guitarist Daron Malakian at a Lowlands show, “about death, and friends that die, and life that dies”.
Mind talks about government mind control, specifically mentioning CIA brainwashing in the album’s liner notes.
P.L.U.C.K. is a song dedicated to the victims of the Armenian genocide, and is meant to be a criticism and denouncing of the Turkish Government.
Tracklist:
- Suite-Pee
- Know
- Sugar
- Suggestions
- Spiders
- DDevil
- Soil
- War?
- Mind
- Peephole
- CUBErt
- Darts
- P.L.U.C.K.
Japanese edition - Marmalade
- Störagéd
System of a Down
Serj Tankian: vocals, keyboards, samples
Daron Malakian: guitars, vocals
Shavo Odadjian: bass
John Dolmayan: drums
Production
Produced by Rick Rubin with System of a Down
Mixed by D. Sardy
Engineered by Sylvia Massy
Engineer/assistant engineer: Greg Fidelman
Additional recording/finishing Touches: D. Sardy
Assistant engineers: Sam Storey, Nick Raskulinecz
Assistant mixdown engineers: James Saez, Greg Gordon, Andy Haller
Second assistant mixdown engineer: Bryan Davis
Extra piano by Rick Rubin
Photography: Anthony Artiaga
Cover art: John Heartfield
Art direction: Frank Harkins & System of a Down
A&R direction: Dino Paredes, Sam Wick
Management: Velvet Hammer Management, David Benveniste
Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, California
Vocals and additional recordings at Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research, Hollywood, California
Mixed at Record Plant Studios, Hollywood, California & Hollywood Sound, California
Mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Studios, New York City.
