The music trade was going by means of seismic modifications on the flip of the twenty first Century, due to accelerating development of know-how, the Internet and a particular revolutionary catalyst known as the MP3 file, which allowed followers to indiscriminately share music, each digitally and illegally, by way of groundbreaking digital instruments like Napster. Every musical artist on earth, with out exception, was caught within the crosshairs of this new know-how and the sudden, illicit client habits it inspired — most notably high heavy steel canines Metallica, who led the cost in combating Napster head on in courtroom, and duly misplaced their shorts within the courtroom of public opinion, for trying like a bunch of grumpy previous capitalists.
But one other band victimized by the unauthorized leak of unreleased recordings on this new age of music piracy was Los Angeles nu-metal quartet System of a Down, when a collection of outtakes from their sophomore album, Toxicity, in some way made its means out of the vaults and into file-traders’ palms, in early 2002.
Only a few months prior, in September of 2001, the group had unleashed their breakthrough sophomore album Toxicity and at last begun having fun with mainstream success, almost 4 years after their watershed self-titled debut had alerted discerning steel followers to the group’s wildly authentic (and simply plain bizarre) musical components — summarized by some as Slayer jamming with Faith No More!
Now, barely six months after Toxicity‘s launch, over a dozen new songs — demos, primarily — have been being liberally bandied throughout our on-line world, to the delight of followers, merely completely satisfied to listen to extra SOAD, and the band’s consternation over unfinished cuts informally known as “Toxicity II.”
So System of a Down, to their credit score, made the perfect of a unhealthy state of affairs by swiftly sprucing off most of the tracks in query and getting ready an official launch for the vacation purchasing season, which they wrapped in a spartan package deal impressed by all these home-burned CDRs made after which sarcastically named the disc Steal This Album!, in reference to political activist Abbie Hoffman.
On Nov. 26, 2002, System of a Down’s Steal This Album formally hit shops. The album had been produced by System’s personal Daron Malakian, with in-demand producer Rick Rubin including his Midas contact to the recordings as nicely. Some of the recordings had begun through the Toxicity classes, however had been unnoticed attributable to continuity points. However, the band insisted the fabric was not a b-sides set and have praised the recordings as some of their stronger work.
System of a Down, “Innervision”
The driving rocker “Innervision” loved the best bit of success from the album, climbing to No. 12 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The track urged the listener towards interior soul looking out, with Serj Tankian providing up the insightful strains, “There’s only one true path in life / The road that leads to all leads to one.“
The band additionally gave their track “Boom” some consideration, utilizing the music to soundtrack a video spotlighting the Feb. 15, 2003 worldwide peace demonstration through which 10 million individuals in 600 cities that on the time grew to become the biggest peace demonstration ever. The observe, a excessive power rocker with Tankian largely talking slightly than singing, inbuilt depth whereas driving residence its level. While there wasn’t a deep push in phrases of singles, tracks like “I-E-A-I-A-I-O,” “Mr. Jack” and the album opener “Chic ‘N’ Stu” had their share of followers.
System of a Down, “Boom!”
Fans did their half for System regardless of the leak, scooping up a million-plus copies of the discharge and lapping up 16 tracks that featured all of the same old, lovable SOAD musical eccentricities with a extra stripped down sound reminiscent of the group’s paradigm-shattering debut.
So, whereas it is a bit of a disingenuous stretch to name Steal this Album! a win-win state of affairs, SOAD’s forward-thinking response was infinitely higher than Metallica’s and different artists’ short-sighted, “put the genie back in the bottle” response to digital piracy — which sadly mirrored the prevailing music trade angle for the following decade or so.
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