In a newly released interview originally conducted in September, System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian opened up about the unsuccessful writing sessions he and his bandmates took part in during the mid to late 2010s in hopes of creating a new album. You can watch the interview down below.
Despite their massive popularity and devoted fanbase, the Armenian-American nü-metal icons have famously struggled to align creatively, resulting in nearly two decades without a full-length release. Their last album dropped in 2005, with only a brief return in 2020 when they released two benefit singles in response to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War—raising over half a million dollars for the Artsakh/Armenian community. No new music has followed since.
In 2018, creative tensions within the band spilled into the public eye, with Serj Tankian taking much of the blame for the halted recording process. In response, he released a “manifesto” detailing his frustrations over creative control, financial divisions, and the group’s internal dynamics. However, his vision wasn’t shared by the rest of the band.
In the manifesto, Tankian outlined his concerns about his limited creative input, dissatisfaction with how finances were split, and other internal issues. He had hoped the statement would prompt changes within the band’s dynamic that would allow them to move forward in a way that better suited him—but his bandmates ultimately didn’t see eye to eye.
Years later, there’s still been plenty of speculation about what came out of those reunion attempts nearly a decade ago. In this newly published interview with Sona Oganesyan, Tankian clearly addressed the outcome of those sessions, once again confirming that there’s no hidden, unfinished System of a Down album sitting on a hard drive somewhere.
Here’s what he had to say: “I would say there is no album that is written. I would say that the band…. So years ago — and this is outlined in the book — but years ago, there was a try of coming to minds with myself and the guys in the band. I tried to come to them with what I call jokingly a manifesto, and saying, ‘Listen, if we’re going to move forward, let’s do things in a more egalitarian fashion. Let’s equally split publishing. Let’s equally bring in songs’ — especially the creators, mostly Daron [Malakian, guitarist/vocalist] and I, Shavo [Odadjian, bassist] as well. And everyone gets a veto on songs, like all these amazing kind of, you know, theoretical, positive, egalitarian terms.
“Apparently it doesn’t work in a metal band. You know? The joke is on me. So it didn’t work. But at that time I invited Daron over. Many times, we had dinner at my house, and I would have him play me music that he had written and I would make notes about that music and send it to him, and I would send him music. I would play him music that I had written.
“And so at one point, we had a band meeting — a very long one — and we didn’t come to terms on stuff, but the guys wanted to work on some of those songs. I was in New Zealand. And so they started working in a rehearsal studio on some of those songs, which included Daron‘s songs and a few of mine, if I’m not mistaken. Nothing was recorded. And they had sent it to me, I was in New Zealand at the time.
“They had sent me a recording to listen to. And nothing, like when I say recording, I’m talking about like a tape from a rehearsal studio, you know, not a recording per se. Um, I would say that ‘Genocidal Humanoidz‘ was probably one of them, if I’m not mistaken. I don’t remember if ‘Protect The Land‘ was one of them. I don’t remember maybe, probably not, I would say.
“But you know, some of those, a lot of those are Daron songs, and some of them he may have released recently [via Scars On Broadway] and some of those are my songs which I released, probably on ‘Elasticity‘. So that’s the story. I mean, there is no ‘record.'”
Earlier this year, Daron Malakian admitted that the long-running internal conflicts within the band have taken a toll on him—so much so that he’s uncertain whether he even wants to create another System of a Down album. With no signs of the members finding common ground, the chances of hearing new music from the band remain slim.
