“We still haven’t come eye-to-eye on how things should be done”: The story of the new System Of A Down album that will (probably) never happen

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

Picture the scene. It’s November 22, 2005. One of the biggest bands in metal are releasing their fifth studio album: the second part of a pair, with the first having come out six months previously. It receives universally positive reviews and hits the top spot on the US Billboard 200 – something which is not unusual for its creators.  

Little did we know that that album, Hypnotize, would be the last full-length release by System Of A Down in approaching two decades. Six months later they announced a hiatus, five further years passed and, when it was announced that the Armenian-Americans were returning in 2011, we all rejoiced.