It's Difficult To Make A New Album, John Dolmayan Calls Serj Tankian Has Long Wants To Leave System Of A Down

JAKARTA - Drummer System Of A Down (SOAD), John Dolmayan again spoke about the difficulty of recording the follow-up to the album Mezmerize and Hypnotize, which was released in 2005.

SOAD has been on occasional tours since ending the break in 2011, but has only managed to record two songs in the last 18 years, Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz.

Released in November 2020, the song was motivated by the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan. All the proceeds from digital sales of the two songs were donated to support humanitarian action in the ancestral state of SOAD, Armenia.

Along with other donations from fans on their social media pages, SOAD managed to collect more than 600,000 US dollars.

While appearing in the Battleline Podcast, Dolmayan discussed the inability of SOAD to produce more new music.

"Serj [Tankian, SOAD vocalist] has long wanted to leave this band. And to be honest, we may have to separate around 2006. We tried to get together several times to make an album, but there are certain rules that make it difficult for him to do and maintain the integrity of what SOAD is fighting for," Dolmayan said. quoted from Blabbermoith, Wednesday.

"So, we can't really be together and agree. And part of it was Serj's fault, and partly my fault, and Shavo [Odadjian, bassist], Daron [Malakian, guitarist] too. But in the end, if you have a majority of bands thinking one way and one person thinking about the other, it's very difficult to get together and make music think people are important."

Dolmayan continued, every member of SOAD is very important to produce the band's distinctive sound. And listeners will know that by listening to a side project of anyone where they are never as good as in SOAD.

"In fact, I think a lot of them are not good at all. And when you compare it to what we're doing together as SOAD, you understand why the team is important and has certain talents that come together and combine materials and magic things. That's what's important."