With bands like Tool and Rammstein ending long album droughts this year, there are still no encouraging signs of new music from System of a Down. However, if it was up to bassist Shavo Odadjian, System would have released not only one but a handful of LPs since their last album.
System of a Down’s most recent album was Hypnotize, which was released in November 2005. That means we’re coming up on 14 years since we’ve gotten new music from the multiplatinum metal band. Yes, that’s longer than the 13-year gap between Tool’s 10,000 Days and the upcoming Fear Inoculum, due out August 30th.
When we spoke with Odadjian late last year, he told us that System had “material that tops everything we’ve done”, and expressed hope that one day the band would indeed record a new album, despite creative differences between main songwriters Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian.
In a new interview, Odadjian was pressed by SiriusXM radio host Eddie Trunk about the lack of new music from System, and the bassist said that there was a point a couple years ago when the band got together, minus Tankian, to work on new music. “We got in and wrote, like, about 10 or 11 songs. Daron brought, like, seven or eight songs; I brought four or five ideas in that became songs. Minus Serj’s vocals, of course. It was really good. It came out really great. And I hope to one day go back to those and use some of Serj’s stuff. I know Serj’s got some stuff.”
Odadjian himself doesn’t understand why the band members can’t just put their creative differences aside. “In my world, man, why it isn’t happening is a big question,” he remarked. “I think we can get over anything ’cause it’s not like someone’s done anything so horrible that we can’t get over it – ain’t nothing like that. It’s just creative differences that are lasting a little too long for me, for my taste.”
(See Also: Daron Malakian on the State of System of a Down + More)
When Trunk mentioned the frustration of the bands’ fans, the bassist replied, “I’m one of those fans. I swear to God, dude. I really would love to have done it. I mean, like I said: if it was up to me, we would have never stopped. We would have been on our probably ninth or 10th record now.”
For now, System continue to perform live, albeit sporadically. We caught the band back in May when they headlined the Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
Hear Odadjian address System of a Down’s status with Trunk in the player below.
