10 Best Nu-Metal Albums Of The 00s
3. System Of A Down - Toxicity (2001)
What was the one thing the nu-metal frontier was missing? You guessed it, a middle-eastern twang and nonsensical lyrics - enter System Of A Down.
The Armenian heritage shines throughout on an album overloaded with distorted riffs, political-angst and a plentiful amount of melodic choruses. Hits such as Chop Suey, Ariels and namesake Toxicity helped push the unconventional band into stardom. The best way to describe the overall sound on Toxicity is a trip of hypnotic experimentation.
Looking back at System’s meteoric rise to popularity, they never really fitted in, which is an ode to the nu-metal generation - a rabble of misfit bands all trying to fuse unique aspects together from the backrooms of musicology into metal to stand out.
SOAD continued to evolve after Toxicity, but this was the album that really found their poetic groove, and can be seen as the birth of their signature sound. The album allowed fans to jump aboard the boat of unorthadoxicity.