Perfect 10's: Mezmerized-System of a Down

So a couple of weeks ago I was watching a recording of System of a Down's free show up in Armenia and after being blown away by the sheer awesomeness of them blasting through a catalog of awesome album cuts and singles I was motivated to grab my copy of Mezmerize/Hyptotize and give that a listen and that's where today's post comes to mind.


We all have a small list of albums that we've heard that in all honesty from beginning to end there isn't a single tune that is bad in all honesty the whole album from beginning to end is all killer with pretty much no filler and after kind of reliving my middle/high school nostalgia fueled excitement I thought to myself that I should highlight such records and with that in mind I'm a do a little segment called Perfect 10's which in all honesty is just a term I'm  using to describe an album that from beginning to end is all great with no dips in quality at all.....in my humble opinion and since this album was the first one to come to mind I figured fuck it why not.

Mezmerize was System of a Downs 4th studio album released on May 17, 2005 and was the first half of a double album with the second half Hypnotize released about 6 months later and while they should be observed as a whole album in all honesty I find Mezmerize to be such a superior product in it's own right that I often just kind of keep forgetting about Hypnotize even though it is a solid album in it's own right but that's not the thing we're talking about here.

From beginning to end this album is an all our assault on your senses just brimming with fast paced rockers and amazing guitar work through and through with the right blend of super obscured and awkward lyrics like Cigarago and Violent Pornography that are merely there to kind of make you listen so you can come to realize like every album this band has done it's an incredibly politically charged work that shines very heavily in it's biggest cut B.Y.O.B. and Sad Statue the latter of which has some of the most impressive guitar work I've heard from this band probably ever and actually wiht that in mind the middle eastern influence in guitar tones is more overt in this album especially in a track like Revenga.

Overall this album really shines for me because it just doesn't let up at any points it's a hard hitting effort of amazingly well done songs that for whatever reason or another haven't aged like their contemporaries and when i come to realize it's been 10 years since it came out and it still pounds as amazingly great now as it did then I'm only more impressed.

Really if you haven't given this a listen and you want some Heavy Metal that's more then just breakdowns and screamed vocals then you should own this album 10/10 highly recommended.

Quality Cuts: Sad Statue, Old School Hollywood, Violent Pornography, and Questions?