“I remember them telling me, ‘You don’t play angry’”: Bassist in Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian’s pre-System Of A Down band was fired for not being “angry enough”

Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian of System Of A Down onstage in 2014.

The bassist in the band that evolved into System Of A Down says that he was let go from the lineup for not being “angry enough”.

Talking in the current issue of Metal Hammer, David Hakopyan, who played alongside Tankian and Malakian in Hollywood rockers Soil during the early 90s, likens the expulsion to being “being a kid and your friends ask you to stop coming to the clubhouse”.