Always open to all sorts of different music and so always a multi-layered cut above their shouty nu-metal peers, System of a Down sold a whopping 40 million records before surrendering in 2006. Five years later, the Californian-Armenians’ inevitable reunion embraced the lucrative festival circuit.
This time around they’re mostly indoors, but the foursome were a tsunami of contradictions, as frustrating as they were brilliant. Throughout a massive, 140-minute set, nothing could quite dispel the notion that for them this was a transaction of the money-for-old-rope variety. No new music meant they have condemned themselves to being a nostalgia act and, after arriving 30 minutes late, they struggled to appear interested.
Worse, while the sound was fabulous, the foursome were too payday-conscious to use screens, ensuring that for most of the crowd they were merely static blobs.
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Curiously, there were screens used for three brief intermissions which condemned Turkey’s treatment of the Armenians a century ago. Yet, those lofty pretensions and chief singer Serj Tankian’s lecture on genocide were rendered redundant by Cigaro’s smirking insistence that “my cock is much bigger than yours” (satire, apparently) and Needles’s invitation to “pull the tapeworm out of your ass” (something to do with heroin, apparently).
But, much as System of a Down appear to have no worse enemies than themselves, they were often a jaw-dropping delight. Holy Mountains was almost hymnal, Lost in Hollywood showcased heavenly harmonies and Science reminded us how thrilling rampant rock can be.
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