Amazon.co.uk Review
The second in System Of A Down’s projected 2005 two-album set picks up where its predecessor
Mezmerize left off, melding together bug-eyed political rage, complex prog-metal, and incomprehensible lyrical absurdities and packaging them all together in one of the ugliest sleeves ever seen in Christendom.
Mind you, to be aesthetically pleasing is not System’s way: "She’s On Heroin" and "Stealing Society" are lurid snapshots of society at its most grotesque, schizophrenic canvases of thrash metal and dizzying Cossack rhythms as warped and twisted as the drug addicts and insane dictators they inevitably depict. A bizarre highlight comes in the shape of "Victim Of Obscenity", where frontman Serj Tankian chants "Banana banana banana terracotta/ Banana terracotta pie". As with Mezmerize, Hypnotize finds guitarist Daron Malakian handling many of the vocal duties: he takes the lead on "Kill Rock’n’Roll", declaring "I felt like the biggest asshole/When I killed your rock’n’roll", and again on the uncharacteristically slow, emotive "Lonely Day". If anything, though, this is a heavier, more bewildering work than its predecessor. An album to sort out the men from the boys – Louis Pattison
From the Label
Produced by Rick Rubin and Daron Malakian, Hypnotize maintains System of a Down’s reputation as full-spectrum agitators who adeptly channel righteous rage into compelling, provocative and relevant rock. Daron, singer Serj Tankian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan recorded some 30 tracks for Mezmerize/Hypnotize at Rubin's Laurel Canyon studio between May and December of 2004. The songs are more complex, more progressive, more unorthodox and more experimental than ever, while retaining the idiosyncratic, ironic and schizophrenic qualities that make System of a Down so distinctive.
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