Why must they keep playing with our emotions like this?! While there was some hope last year that we might get a new System of a Down Album, guitarist Daron Malakian said recently that creative differences are the main holdup. Malakian also says that his new Scars On Broadway album could've very well been new System Of A Down, but too much time was going by and he wanted to use the material for something. Serj Tankian also noted recently that he would be reappropriating songs he wrote for a potential new SOAD album for his own solo work. So, why are we talking about SOAD members working on new music together?
Because the two members of the band who don't seem to have any drama, drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian have indeed been in the studio lately, as Dolmayan shared on social media…
"Great song ideas flowing from a very strong song writer," Dolmayan writes, adding "Stay tuned." While ThePRP speculated that this might be for Dolmayan's much-publicized These Grey Men project, that project is explicitly all covers, where as the caption here seems to indicate it's an original work.
Ultimately, it's hard to get super excited when frontman Serj Tankian basically spelled doom for the possibility of new System, telling Rolling Stone the main reason he didn't want to do a new album is because, with a young child, he didn't want to commit to the two year album touring cycle:
That's the funny thing. When people don't see a record, they assume the worst about your internal relationship. But the truth is we're actually better friends – at least I'm better friends with everyone than I've ever been. John's my brother-in-law; he's in my family. We have a great time together touring. But sometimes putting together a record, and that creative output and how things should be done, is different in four people's heads and it doesn't always come together. Fortunate or unfortunate, however you want to call it, that's the truth. But touring is easy, because you've done all these songs. You have fun, you go out and tour, and that's it.
