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System of a Down (also referred to as System or abbreviated as SOAD) is a four-piece, Grammy-award winning band, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles, California. All four members are of Armenian descent, grandsons of Armenian Genocide  survivors, and are widely known for their outspoken views found in many of their songs. System of a Down has achieved commercial success over five albums, with singles such as "Chop Suey!" and "B.Y.O.B.". System of a Down is a part of the Axis of Justice, a non-profit organization formed by band member Serj Tankian (along with Tom Morello) that is dedicated to bringing together musicians, music fans and grassroots political organizations to fight for social justice. The roots of System of a Down lie in the band Soil, a group from Los Angeles that included Serj Tankian on vocals and Daron Malakian on guitar, as well as Dave Hakopyan (Bassist for Apex Theory) on bass and Domingo Laranio (Local Hawaii Drummer) on drums. Shavo Odadjian joined Soil quite down near the end as a guitarist. After three years, and only one live show and one jam session recording, the band split up.
After Soil split up, Tankian and Malakian then formed a new band, System of a Down, based on a poem that Daron wrote. The poem's title was "Victims of a Down", but Serj Tankian thought that Victim would only appeal to a narrow audience and the word System would appeal to a larger, more general audience. They called on Shavo Odadjian, with whom they knew from when Soil shared a recording studio with Odadjian's previous band as well as when Odadjian was briefly their guitar player. Odadjian was originally the band's manager and promoter, though he quickly accepted the offer to permanently join the band as bassist. Since then, managerial duties have been undertaken by highly successful Velvet Hammer Music and streetwise founder David "Beno" Benveniste. One of SOAD's first releases was "Sugar", which was recorded on their first demo tape, and they have played the song at nearly every live performance since then. The band then found a drummer, Ontronik Khachaturian. SOAD quickly made an early Untitled 1995 Demo Tape, which had very early recordings of "Mr. Jack" (called "PIG"), along with songs called "Flake," "Toast" and an early recording of "The Metro," a cover of the Berlin song of the same name. There were also other tapes made, which contained early recordings of "36" (called ".36"), "Roulette" and "X" (called "Multiply"). After this, the band recorded Demo Tape 1, which had early versions of "Sugar," "Suite-Pee," and "P.L.U.C.K.," as well as the rare track "Dam." Demo Tape 2 was released in 1996 and had a rough demo of the song "Soil" as well as the most known unreleased tracks such as "Honey" and "Temper." At the beginning of 1997, SOAD recorded their final publically-released demo tape, Demo Tape 3, which had rough versions of "Peephole," "War?," and  "Know." Prior to 1998, SOAD's live shows were called "The Dark Red Experience." In mid 1997, Ontronik Khachaturian left the band due to a hand injury. Soon after playing at the Whisky-A-Go-Go and Viper Room with new drummer John Dolmayan, producer Rick Rubin caught the band's attention and told them to keep in touch with him. Showing great interest, they recorded Demo Tape 4 near the end of that year. This demo, however, was made only to be sent to record companies. The tape was not released to the public until several years later when it was leaked onto the Internet. After Rick helped them get signed onto American/Columbia Records, SOAD began to record in his studio. In 1997 SOAD won the Best Signed Band award from the Rock City Awards.
In the summer of 1998, System of a Down released their debut album, System of a Down. They enjoyed moderate success with their first single "Sugar" becoming a radio favorite, followed by the singles "Spiders" and "War?". After the release of the album, System of a Down toured extensively, opening for Slayer before making their way to the second stage of Ozzfest. Following Ozzfest, they toured with Fear Factory and Incubus before headlining the Sno-Core tour with Puya, Mr. Bungle, The Cat and Incubus providing support. System was scheduled to play the 1999 Family Values Tour, but were kicked off by Fred Durst over his inability to sign the band Taproot. Fred Durst has since admitted that he was a "complete wanker" in relation to this "oversight". The band have yet to comment on Durst's involvement or commentary. In 2000, the group contributed their cover of the Black Sabbath song "Snowblind" to the Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black 2.
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