Not holding our breath for this.
It’s been 15 years since System Of A Down released their last album, and it looks like three quarters of the band have got back into writing new music together – just without frontman Serj Tankian.
In a candid interview at the end of 2018, System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian revealed that new SOAD music was being worked on, and that is was sounding pretty great.
“Between you and me and this world, and to the people who read this interview, we have material that tops everything we’ve done,” Shavo shared. “And that’s me telling you, honestly. I can’t wait to record that and drop it.
“It’s just a matter of time. I just hope it happens sooner than later. But we’ve written stuff together. Daron [Malakian]’s brought a lot of stuff in. I’ve brought stuff to Daron and we’ve worked it out. I have so much more stuff that is ready to go out.”
Shavo was also surprisingly candid about the rumoured in-fighting, which had previously held back any hopes of new music and touring. At the time, he shared that that was all just a rumour, sharing “We’re not even fighting. When we see each other, we’re so happy and we’re cool. It’s weird that we don’t have a new record, or many records, and it’s weird that we don’t go on world tours. We tour, but it’s so little.”
But apparently that’s changed somewhat, with a recent interview with System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan casting doubt on whether there will ever be a new SOAD album at all.
When asked if we are any closer to a new System Of A Down album, he shared “We’re further away. We were getting close for a little while. Shavo, Daron and I were in the studio – this is two, maybe three years ago now. We finalized the music for 12 songs. They were very good. But due to internal problems and rifts, I don’t see that happening.”
Sad news.
System Of A Down also just announced a massive, one-off show for later this year in Los Angeles with support from the likes of Korn, Faith No More, Helmet and Russian Circles on May 22.