Oh, System Of A Down. You spend 15 years arguing with each other about ‘musical differences’ and whether or not Donald Trump is a psychotic cockwomble, then you go and drop two brand new songs on us with no warning whatsoever.
And then what do you do? You go back to the bickering and act like the whole thing never happened. Come on, lads. Play the game.
While a fully-fledged reunion is still about as likely as a Jon Schaffer 2021 World Tour, frontman Serj Tankian has thrown frustrated System fans a bone in the shape of his stellar new song Elasticity.
The title track from Serj’s upcoming EP – out March 19, according to the smoke signals coming from his backyard – it was apparently written for a – Aarrgghh!! Frustration levels off the scale! – System album that never quite got off the ground.
And it sounds like it. Where the admittedly great Genocidal Humanoidz and Protect The Land played it relatively straight by System’s standards, this finds Serj hoisting his freak flag high.
It all kicks off with the kind of jack-in-a-box riff that System patented back in the day, with our man in full-on gibbering/whooping/squawking step-away-from-the-strange-gentleman mode. But then it kicks in with a massive hook, complete with squelching, 80s-style keyboards (it reminds us of an old 80s song which we can't quite remember. We'll get back to you on that).
And the video? Kafka-esque waiting rooms? Bottles full of urine? Singing tattoos? We're sure there's some meaning to it, but we're only on our second coffee of the day, and our brains haven't quite worked it out yet.
It’s a tremendous song, and it’s no massive leap to imagine what it would sound like if System had given it their own stamp. Which only makes us even more depressed at the lack of a reunion. Come on, fools. You know what to do.
