It took over 4 years, but we are finally reviewing System of a Down again on this program and doing what a lot of people did after hearing "Toxicity": looking backwards at this odd album that follows SOAD's usual formula of a few clear hits and a lot of strange, strange songs. Toxicity having the success it did was strange, but this album going double platinum is even stranger, as it introduced the world to System of a Down with a much more experimental style, blending a lot of world music influences and heavy riffs together with a lot of nonsensical–and some political–lyrics. We dig into all that here, as well as grappling with this album at the time, the dumb stuff Daron was already saying when it came out, and where it stands in System of a Down's (and nu-metal's) history.

If you want more of our podcast's history, a reminder that we have a LOT of content behind a paywall (over 130 episodes!) and you can get it all RIGHT NOW by heading to patreon.com/thepodkast, where $4/month gets you access to our entire back catalogue PLUS three new bonus episodes every month. Last month, comedian Myles Anderson joined us to listen to his first-ever nu-metal album, Kim Dracula's "A Gradual Decline in Morale" which...is an insane first nu-metal album to listen to. You can also tell us what to review if there's something you're dying for us to cover, so head on over there and check it out!