System Of A Down Hypnotize CD

This is a DualDisc, which contains a CD on one side of the disc and a DVD on the other.
System of a Down: Daron Malakian (vocals, guitar); Serj Tankian (vocals, keyboards); Shavo Odadjian (bass instrument); John Dolmayan (drums).
Just when it seemed that System of a Down couldn't do anything to improve on their standing as the most unique and ambitious band in the alternative metal world, they decided to drop their sprawling, Rick Rubin-produced double album by releasing each disc separately. Early 2005 saw the arrival of MESMERIZE. After that album gained significant exposure via tours, radio, and videos, the album's counterpart, HYPNOTIZE, was released in late November. The albums were recorded in the same sessions--so there is a strong sense of musical cohesion, and even the CD packages themselves are designed to fit together to form one set.
"Attack" and "Dreaming" the first songs on HYPNOTIZE, are classic System of a Down with their furious riffage, schizophrenic song structures, and the slinky, nasal vocals of lead singer Serj Tankian. The band knows how to craft a hook ("Kill Rock 'N Roll," "She's Like Heroin"), raise political consciousness ("Stealing Society" is about the Armenian genocide), and rock with the ferocity of the heaviest speed and thrash metal bands. In short, System of a Down seems capable of doing anything, and HYPNOTIZE is further, indisputable proof of that fact.
It wasn't a lie when System of a Down said the packaging for Mezmerize and Hypnotize would slot together. Released in November 2005, roughly six months after its counterpart, Hypnotize does indeed feature a tri-fold design. But the extra cardboard slotting's a little extraneous, as are some of the sonic parts on both albums. Truth is the motor for System's spazzy, modernist thrash. It drives the boiling rage in Hypnotize's "Attack," "Stealing Society," and "U-Fig"; on "Holy Mountain," it inspires SOAD to transform the sad facts of genocide into the album's most vicious, powerful, and arresting moment. Of course, truth also drives SOAD to make passionate, if slightly screwy, decisions: Serj Tankian's ADD sputter of "eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em eat 'em" and "banana banana banana terracotta" on Hypnotize; Mezmerize's detour into celebrity baseball game outtakes on "Old School Hollywood." These moments are head-scratchers, no doubt, but they're integral to the experience -- System of a Down confound and irritate even as they rock. And it's precisely because of that weird aggression/aggravation dynamic that Mezmerize/Hypnotize is as strong a concept/double album as metal can offer in 2005. ~ Johnny Loftus

Parental Advisory; Dual Disc CD/DVD

Rolling Stone (No. 988, p.117) - 3.5 out of 5 stars - "...Hell immediately runneth over on Malakian's scoured-staccato guitars and Dolmayan's furious hammering...."
Spin (p.102) - "[The first album's] tracks, all around four minutes long, ricochet through a clutch of ideas, compressing what might otherwise be prog-rock suites into jump-cut barrages. That strategy certainly keeps the songs moving..." -- Grade: B
Spin (p.62) - Ranked #20 in Spin's "40 Best Albums Of 2005" - "America's most compelling metal band hones a mash-up of Cali-punk absurdism, political outrage, and jump-cut headbanging."
Entertainment Weekly (No. 851, p.100) - "...[T]hey're flaunting a heretofore underexplored sensitive side, offsetting their trademark stampeding riffology with flashes of delicate lyricism...." - Grade: B+
Uncut (p.109) - 3 stars out of 5 - "System succeed through their skill at wielding complex, progressive heaviness in a pop context."