System of a Down Drummer: New Album Will “Match or Beat Anything We’ve Done in the Past.”
Last November, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan gave an interview in which he said the band had 15 tracks written for their next album.
Seven months later, System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has given another interview… in which he says that the band has 15 tracks written for their next album.
Things clearly aren’t progressing very quickly for the first System of a Down album in twelve years, and Dolmayan is as frustrated by the progress as we are. He explains:
“In our band, the difficulty really isn’t is one of us gonna fall off the wagon or get into a bad situation. It’s really a matter of are we gonna come together and make something happen. I had rehearsal last night in L.A. and I drove right out … I don’t know. I don’t know why we aren’t coming out with an album. It’s very disheartening.
“The funny thing is we all get into the studio, everybody’s getting along great. We have a blast on the road. If I had my way we would have put out five albums in the last twelve years. And I think we’re really doing a disservice to ourselves cause you only have a finite amount of time, you know? If anything, Chris Cornell passing away unexpectedly, at any given moment, it does put things into perspective and you realize how much time you wasted.”
That said, Dolmayan is incredibly bullish on the direction of the new material the band is working on:
“We’ve been in the studio for the past year and we’ve put together about fifteen songs so far that I think match or beat anything we’ve done in the past… And I don’t make those kinds of claims without having something to back it up. We’re better than we’ve ever been, we’re tighter than we’ve ever been, we know what we’re doing and the songs are there. It’s a matter of getting together and putting aside whatever differences, or whatever problems people have — which don’t seem to surface when we’re together, by the way. It’s almost like there’s two System of a Downs for me.”
There’s nothing to be gleaned from any of this that indicates when a new album might finally come out — Dolmayan seems as perplexed as we fans — but at least things are moving along… sort of?
Meanwhile, European SoaD fans can catch the band live all over the continent next month; dates here.
And there’s always this old gem to keep the rest of us entertained:
