I still remember the first and only live appearance of SYSTEM OF A DOWN upon Greek soil; it took place in 1997 when the Armenians were the opening act for SLAYER who were by that time promoting the Diabolous In Musica album. That day everybody (including me) laughed at the opening act since their performance was at least weird. Honestly, with that performance SYSTEM OF A DOWN did not earn a single fan and partially this was due to the weak debut and homonymous album. Well, what happened with SYSTEM OF A DOWN with their second album is known to everyone who reads this review.
These days the SYSTEM OF A DOWN roller-coaster remains still from the day Hypnotize saw the light of the day somewhere near the end of 2005. So, the voice of SYSTEM OF A DOWN, Serj Tankian grabbed this opportunity to release his debut solo album under the title Elect The Dead.
Personally, I was a little bit disappointed by the results of Tankian's efforts because the albums sounds almost like a SYSTEM OF A DOWN would; repetitive rhythms with catchy guitar riffs, some Punk additions and of course the classic weird vocal melodic lines. I know that some of you might be thinking why is this bad? I like SYSTEM OF A DOWN.... Ok, let me explain myself.
The album opens with Empty Walls; this track was also used for the album's first and excellent and allegoric (that fit the lyrics) video clip. The track itself follows the typical SYSTEM OF A DOWN pattern with distinct guitar riffs and Tankian's trademark voice. The Unthinking Majority welcomes some weird melodic breaks that create an excellent contrast to the Punk feeling of the rhythm guitars. One thing that I found new here is the addition of piano sounds; obviously, the Armenian singer composes music by playing melodies in the piano and this works in Money, Honking Antelope and Sky Is Over. In the latter song Tankian uses his voices as a new instrument revealing some of the multiple voice profiles of his. As always, the lyrics have a political anti-war background that was also used in the SYSTEM OF A DOWN albums and this how they became that successful. Lie Lie Lie is one of my favorites despite the presence of some almost annoying vocals lines but I guess they enhance the theatrical atmosphere that Tankian likes to implement.
Taking into account my above writings you will realize that I like this album but I could not stop mentioning the SYSTEM OF A DOWN moniker because there are so much (or is it too much) references. The thing is that I expected something new almost groundbreaking from Tankian who I personally think of as a most talented musician.