A YouTuber has taken the classic System Of A Down song Chop Suey! and used the power of A.I. to swap co-vocalists Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian’s voices.
User Leonyx uploaded his switch-up take on the track to YouTube last week and has already drawn more than 110,000 clicks from curious viewers.
This A.I.-generated version means that Malakian’s voice takes lead vocals, singing the hugely popular “Wake up! Grab a brush, put on a little makeup!” opening in a less erratic tone than Tankian’s voice did.
However, the two singers’ computerised counterparts still sound as impressive as ever when they take the twin vocal harmonies at the song’s conclusion.
Reaction to the switched-up take seems to be largely positive online.
“Now I’d like to hear Lost In Hollywood with Serj as the lead vocals,” one viewer insists.
“I’ve never asked AI for anything, and yet it gives me what I need,” adds another.
Another comment says, “Their vocal harmonies are still as enjoyable to listen to as always, no surprises there!”
Although this new twist on the 2001 Toxicity single was created by A.I., it may be the closest we get to hearing new System Of A Down music for quite some time.
The nu metal leaders, after splitting in 2006, reunited in 2011, but are yet to make an album since then.
Thus far the reunited Armenian-American four-piece, completed by bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan, have only made two new songs together. Genocidal Humanoidz and Protect The Land were released as a double A-side single in 2020 to raise money for the Armenia Fund.
Both tracks were written solely by Malakian and no new music has been released, teased or announced since.
Dolmayan expressed his frustrations about System Of A Down’s inability to make a new album together during a 2022 interview with actor Sona Oganesyan.
“We have this gift that came from God or wherever, and we're squandering it,” he said (per Blabbermouth).
“It's an insult to everybody else that tries to make it in whatever endeavour they're trying to make. And here we are — we've made it, we have the talent, we have the ability, we have an adoring fanbase, we've sold, I don't know, whatever it is — 30 million albums or more — and they're hungry for it, and we just don't do it.
“That's like the worst — having the ability to do something and not doing it is, I think, the worst thing in the world as far as in the perspective of being an artist. You're just hurting yourself.”
