Fans are hoping that we might see some unheard System Of A Down material soon, though Serj Tankian notes that his bandmates might need to be convinced.
Ask any System Of A Down fan and they’ll tell you that the “will they, won’t they” of the band’s new album is getting pretty old.
While guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan have explained that there’s “one member” holding them back, it was soon revealed that the cause of this delay is their frontman Serj Tankian.
Last year, Tankian revealed that he was the cause for the band’s hiatus, and didn’t even want to be involved in their last two albums.
“It is true that I and only I was responsible for the hiatus SOAD took in 2006,” he stated. “Everyone else wanted to continue at the same pace to tour and make records.”
Despite this, the group maintain they’re all still on good terms and happy to play shows. However, while bassist Shavo Odadjian has explained it’s “just a matter of time” before a new album surfaces, Serj Tankian has been quick to dismiss any notion of a new record.
However, despite no new record coming at any time in the future, Tankian seems content to let listeners trawl the archives, revealing he’s happy for unreleased material to be shared with fans if his bandmates agree.
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As Metal Injection has pointed out, Tankian’s recently-launched Patreon account gives fans the chance to hold chat sessions with him from time to time.
One of these sessions saw a fan ask whether or not the rocker had seen a petition that they launched to help get a number of unreleased tracks from their Mezmerize and Hypnotize sessions shared into the world.
“For the unreleased Soad songs?” Tankian confirmed. “Yes. I’m all for it. Convince everyone else.”
Taking to Instagram, the user called upon the other members of System Of A Down to throw their support behind the cause and petition (which has since exceeded its initial goal of 2,500 signatures).
“We ask of you to please release the unreleased music of System of a Down,” they explained. “It’s probably the closest thing to new music we will get.
“Please come together and agree upon the release of the System of a Down unreleased songs from Mezmerize and Hypnotize as well as songs like Honey and Temper.”
According to an image of an old recording chart from around the time of these sessions and other sources, the list of unreleased tunes could number around 37, and includes tunes such as ‘Religious People’, ‘Criminal Nation’, and ‘Nun With A Gun’.
While some tunes such as ‘Hezze’ had been played live, and tracks like ‘Sheredes’ and ‘Elect The Dead’ were released as Serj Tankian tunes, the remainder are unreleased, with very little information available regarding their sound or content.
Likewise, songs such as ‘Honey’ and ‘Temper’ – as alluded to on Instagram – have been released as demos over the years, though remain largely inaccessible for casual fans.
While it remains to be seen whether or not these songs will eventually see the light of day, it appears as though it’s up to the rest of System Of A Down to agree for these songs to be released.
Check out ‘Hypnotize’ by System Of A Down:
