Gallantly Streaming: Serj Tankian Hides His Best Album Behind A Guise Of Systematic Nostalgia
After a pair of underachieving solo albums and the memory of System Of A Down starting to fade from public perception, it's somewhat understandable that Serj Tankian would use his third solo affair to reintroduce himself as the same oddball aggressor who tore a strip off of mainstream culture with System Of A Down over the course of four unflinching, daring and brutally heavy rock albums. And, though it does rock hard by times, Harakiri gets most of its kicks in solid songwriting and soaring choruses rather than eardrum pummeling and guitar shredding.
The song that Serj and his label chose to release as a single in hopes of selling this record is the full-blown metal assault of Figure It Out, a track that practically shouts from the rooftops, "Look how hard I can rock without System Of A Down! You're going to buy my album because I'm just as heavy as when I was in System Of A Down, right?"
Truth be told, with its insistent heaviness and free-flowing profanity, Figure It Out tries a little too hard to recapture System's glory days. Indeed, in the context of the album, it seems like a case of fast and heavy for the sake of being fast and heavy; it might remind you of SOAD, but it's also one of the least memorable and enduring songs on the album. Don't get me wrong, it sounds fine on its own. However, it sounds less like it was written for this album specifically and more like a test subject for System's inevitable reunion album. Or worse, a blatant attempt at cashing in on System fans' nostalgia.
Tellingly, nothing on Harakiri touches Figure It Out in terms of brutality. This album is more about hooks than heavy, and because of that it yields of Serj's best songs; the title track is melodic without being boring, and heavy without being overly speedy and/or confrontational. It's the song he should have released as lead single, not because it reminds people of his old band and not because it's the best song on the album, but because it just might be the best song of his career.
There's also lots to love about the silly and off-the-wall touches found in Ching Chime, with its middle eastern splashes and Serj's rhythmic rap/singing. And yet, just as the song appears to be diving into repetition and laziness, the chorus punches through and switches the song into a melodic juggernaut.
The bulk of the album is not as fast and heavy as heyday System Of A Down, nor should it be. Serj's songwriting has veered away from the metallic insanity of SOAD, and the songs on Harakiri arguably reap greater rewards. On Harakiri, Serj has found a staggering, awesome middle ground between metal muscle and radio readiness. As much as System Of A Down's radio hits pulled them into the mainstream (or perhaps, more accurately, pulled the mainstream toward them), the songs on this album have pop sensibility without sacrificing edge. If this album were released in 2003 under the SOAD moniker as a follow-up to their breakthrough Toxicity, it would have been absolutely massive.
Harakiri is, essentially, the sound of Tankian truly finding his own voice, finally crawling out from the shadow of System Of A Down establishing himself as a solo artist. Which is why it's so puzzling to me that the album's marketing seems to be transfixed on SOAD fans, because many of them will be at least partly disappointed that the album isn't a wall-to-wall bombast while casual observers who would otherwise fall head over heels for the album's more accessible moments will be kept away by all of the racket.
Harakiri comes out July 10 on Serjical Strike/Warner Bros.
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