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System of a Down returns after 15 years to stand with Armenia as drummer John Dolmayan slammed for BLM remarks

Their two new songs, ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ speak of 'a dire and serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia'

A majority of musicians make music for entertaining their audience and expanding their fan base but there are a handful of artists who want to bring a change in society. Armenian-American heavy metal band, System of a Down (SOAD) is surely one of them. The band formed in 1994 had made several headlines back in the day for their songs on topics such as drug abuse, politics and suicide, and now they've made a comeback for yet another cause. Their fifth and last project titled ‘Hypnotize’ came in the year 2005 and but in a piece of good news, the heavy metal band decided to come back after a gap of 15 years with their two fresh songs titled ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ both of which speak of "a dire and serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia".

The official Twitter account of System of a Down which has more than a million followers surprised their fans with their two brand new songs. They also released an official statement on the Bandcamp page revealing the motive behind the surprise release.

An excerpt from the band’s official statement says, “We as System Of A Down have just released new music for the first time in 15 years. The time to do this is now, as together, the four of us have something extremely important to say as a unified voice. 

It further reads, “We’re proud to share these songs with you and hope you enjoy listening to them. Further, we encourage you to read on to learn more about their origins and once you do, hope you are inspired to speak out about the horrific injustices and human rights violations occurring there now. Most importantly and urgently, we humbly implore you to donate, in sums small or large to help those adversely affected with what are ever-growing accounts of crimes against humanity.”

The band currently consists of founding members Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards, rhythm guitar), Daron Malakian (lead/rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals) and Shavo Odadjian (bass, backing vocals) as well as John Dolmayan (drums, percussion), who replaced original drummer Andy Khachaturian in 1997.

Fans were in for a surprise and took to Twitter to express their opinion on the same but a few also slammed the band’s drummer John Dolmayan for his earlier statements on Black Lives Matter. In one of his early Instagram posts, as reported by NME, he had said, “The supposed black lives matter movement never had legitimacy in my view and were always a Democratic Party fundraiser and propaganda tool”.

Reacting to the new songs one user said, “If you’re here, and you’re really happy about this - please don’t forget the message SOAD is trying to spread. Help Armenians. raise awareness.” Another user expressed, “will it be good this time cause the last two were horrible bullsh*t.” One slammed John Dolmayan saying, “As long as John Dolmayan is still in the band and still supporting a fascist, how can I in good conscience support this?”

One elated fan tweeted, “Holy f**king shit. 15 years I have waited for new music from the collective, though I enjoy the respective separate careers, nothing beats them all performing together.” One individual slammed the drummer and posted, “As much as I love this band, I can’t but to question about John. He’s been very dismissive about Black Lives Matter but wants everyone to hear about the Armenian issues that going on. Which is important as well. Just my thoughts.” One user sarcastically tweeted, “Damn that’s crazy y’all did this without a drummer.”

You can check out their brand new tracks right here: