System of a Down’s Serj Tankian Drops New Armenian-Language Single “Amber”

While Armenian-American metal act System of a Down have only released two new songs in the last 15 years, frontman Serj Tankian is aggressively prolific. Serj released his Elasticity EP last year, and announced that he already had another EP written before it came out. Now, Serj has dropped a new single “Amber,” which is sung entirely in Armenian and calls for peace and unity in the country.

Apparently, Serj’s song is not about the golden sap-rocks from which Jurassic Park‘s dinosaur DNA was pulled — in Armenian, “amber” (ahm-ber) means “clouds.” The video sees Serj singing in Armenian with collaborator  Sevak Amroyan, an Armenian singer who is beloved in his homeland.

Says Tankian on the track:

“‘Amber’ was written in 2017 after I visited Armenia along with my friends Atom and Arsinée Egoyan and Eric Nazarian as members of the coalition ‘Justice For Armenia’ to serve as election monitors for the Parliamentary elections. I was so distraught by the slick theft of the elections before ever reaching the ballot box that I wrote this song as a response. The lyrics, however, seem to be more poignant today when Armenians are divided politically and socially following the devastating attack on Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia by Azerbaijan and Turkey in 2020 and the continuous fallout over negotiations with those two dictatorial regimes. ‘Amber”s message is that of unity and harmony. Those are the only truly powerful weapons of the Armenian nation.

“Sevak’s voice has a unique strength harking back to our people’s native lands. I loved listening to his songs like ‘Yarkhushta’ so when we met I was excited to work on something with him.”

Adds Amroyan:

“Naturally, I have listened to Serj Tankian’s music since childhood and always with a sense of pride. After getting acquainted with him, I realized that in addition to being an iconic musician he’s also a very proud Armenian. I am happy about our collaboration and thankful to Serj that we’re singing ‘Amber’ together. It’s a great honor for me.”

Check out “Amber” below. The song is available to pre-save on Spotify.