A Review of Sorts: “Down With The System” Book Review

Serj Tankian, the frontman of the nu-metal band System Of A Down, reflects on his activism, music career and personal life in his new memoir, “Down With The System.” This book isn’t your run-of-the-mill rock star memoir filled with stories of drug and alcohol usage or wild sexcapades. 

From the opening lines of the book, you understand the weightiness of it. Tankian retells the story of his band’s song “Chop Suey,” which features lyrics about “self-riteous suicide” hitting No.1 on the charts on 9/11. Post 9/11, Tankian wrote an essay titled, “Understanding Oil,” on the band’s website. In the essay, he explained that the 9/11 attacks were “a reaction to existing injustices around the world, generally unseen to most Americans.” The essay was a reaction to news publications' oversimplification of the events: “they hate our freedoms.” 

Post-essay, the band members were categorized as immigrants from the Middle East, even though Armenia is in West Asia. Their loyalty to the US was questioned and they received death threats for daring to criticize the country that allowed them to live the “American Dream.” The memoir isn’t a light read. It’s an insightful and touching narrative about the plight of Armenians and Tankian’s spiritual, musical and activist awakening. 

A major theme in the book is Tankian’s Armenian heritage. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Tankian hails from a long line of Armenian ancestors who suffered at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915. Stepan, Tankian’s grandfather, and other Armenians were forced out of their homes and subjected to rape, brutalization, starvation and torture. Fast forward to 1975, when Tankian was seven years old, tragedy struck his family again, civil war broke out in Lebanon and he and his family were forced to flee to the US for safety. 

Tankian and his family moved to California, where he lived amongst Armenian Americans and attended an Armenian American school. In school, Tankian was very smart and received excellent grades, but he felt uncomfortable in a school environment. 

“There was something about the way it was organized – a teacher standing in front of a group of students, supposedly imparting knowledge— that always felt to me more like indoctrination than learning,” Tankian wrote. Even before Tankian started his music or activism career, there was always a spark inside him that recognized the oppressive nature of society. 

Another major theme in this book is activism. As Tankian got older, he joined groups like the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), where he and his peers fought for the recognition of the Armenian genocide. In 1915, with the outbreak of World War I, the Young Turk government drove Armenians out of their homes, reportedly 800,000 to one and a half million Armenians were killed. Despite the overwhelming amount of evidence, Turkey still denies the occurrence of the Armenian genocide to this day. 

In the AYF, Tankian and his peers put on dances and concerts to spread awareness of the genocide, calling for Turkey and other countries around the world to recognize it’s existence. Armenian artists would come and attend these concerts and sing revolutionary music. It was then that Tankian, who wasn’t normally interested in music, discovered an interest in combining music and activism. 

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In 1994, the band System Of A Down was formed in Glendale, California. The band is made up of Tankian (frontman), Daron Malakian (guitarist), Shavo Odadjian (bass guitarist) and John Dolmayan (drummer). Each member of the band is of Armenian descent, and their music reflects that. Their music, unlike anything made in history, is a beautiful blend of Armenian folk music, wildly aggressive metal riffs and politically charged lyrics. 

The band has its fair share of wacky and silly songs, but it also has serious songs that bring awareness to the Armenian genocide. On the band’s 2006 album, “Hypnotize,” the group created the song, “Holy Mountains.” The song features emotionally charged lyrics that reference Mount Arat, an important symbol in Armenian culture. the lyrics honor the several Armenian lives that were lost to the 1915 genocide. 

The band doesn’t only sing about the plight of Armenians. They also discuss other injustices such as police brutality and climate change. Tankian refuses to stand on the sidelines just because one injustice doesn’t currently and directly affect him.“Each injustice is both the cause and effect of countless more injustices,” Tankian wrote. “If you’re not using your microphone, your stage and all the clout that comes with it to try to make some sort of real impact in this world, then what the f**k are you doing and who are you?”

Tankian’s reflection of his time in System is bittersweet. He shares fun tales he had with his bandmates, but he also shares the tough times they experienced. Tankian was more interested in the activism side of their music whereas his bandmates were more interested in the actual artistry. This, coupled with several other creative differences, caused the group to clash at times, but Tankian still writes about his bandmates in a positive light. 

To quell his stress about System, Tankian and his bandmates took breaks. On these breaks, Tankian got into meditating and began focusing on his personal creative endeavors. In the book, he goes deep into social issues such as addiction. One of the most enlightening things Tankian wrote about to me was his experience with meditation. Meditation is all about taking a moment and allowing yourself to breathe, and he theorizes that when people smoke, in a way, they too are taking a spiritual pause to get in touch with their breathing. Tankian explained that meditating taught him how to listen more and react less; the more he meditated, the more he saw the inherent good in people. 

Tankian's "Down With The System” packs a big punch. It may not be a story for the general public, and it may not even be one for System fans. It’s a story for people who are interested in reading a beautifully written historical narrative of a man who is dedicated to fighting injustice and creating impactful art.