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'These Grey Men' LP: System of a Down's John Dolmayan and Serj Tankian cover David Bowie's 'Starman'

John Dolmayan has been working on his own cover album 'These Grey Men' and has shared the latest cover of 'Starman'

System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan and band vocalist Serj Tankian have teamed up to bring a cover of David Bowie's 'Starman'. The track was released in support of a cover album created by Dolmayan, titled 'These Grey Men'.

Dolmayan expresses on his Kickstarter that he wants the album to be regarded as "an experiment, not just in sound, but in the mutual participation of artist and fan".

The eight-track LP is set for release on February 28. The LP is a collection of songs Dolmayan found inspiration from while listening to his iPod while traveling to visit his family and friends in Los Angeles. "I just got inspiration from desert driving and listening to music," he says, according to Blabbermouth.

Dolmayan said that although he enjoyed touring for the Grammy Award-winning, multiplatinum LA quartet that is System of a Down, he developed a longing to explore his musical cravings. Dolmayan wanted to "re-imagine" the popular songs he heard "while maintaining their original integrity". And this he did along with a close friend and co-conspirator since high school, James Hazley, who also shared the same desire.

System of a Down has been facing issues with the creative direction for a new album of their own.

According to an article on Rolling Stone in 2018, the band shared that Serj Tankian has been rather off-ish to the idea of making more music, but they share no hard feelings. In spite of this, System of a Down has an extensive list of shows for a tour this summer.

Dolmayan teamed up with Avenged Sevenfold's M Shadows and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello for Radiohead cover of 'Street Spirit (Fade Out)' previously, in January.

'These Grey Men' tracklist

01. 'Hung Up' (Madonna)
02. 'Street Spirit' (Radiohead)
03. 'Beautiful Thieves' (AFI)
04. 'Road To Nowhere' (Talking Heads)
05. 'Rock Bottom' (Eminem)
06. 'Runaway' (Del Shannon)
07. 'Starman' (David Bowie)
08. 'What You Know' (Two Door Cinema Club)

You can listen to the 'Starman' cover here.