10 Greatest Anti-war Songs In Rock
6. B.Y.O.B. - System Of A Down (2005)
Serj Tankian and the boys from System Of A Down have always learned towards the political side of heavy rock, and this track was no exception. B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs) was the band's second song written as a reaction to the Iraq War.
No doubt if you were a young teenager when this song first came out, you thought it had some killer guitar riffs and a chorus about partying. The rest of it was just inaudible metal madness with a few swear words thrown in; exciting stuff but not much more.
As well as being something you could p*ss your parents of with, though, this track had a message. In all the cacophony of sound the lyrics encapsulated that old quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “War is young men dying and old men talking.”
Tankian's lyrics exploded with outrage and condemnation, denouncing governments for waging war at the cost of the poorer members of society and questioning why politicians are not the ones fighting. The song also touched on the sheep-like willingness the public often has in accepting war as a viable option to the worlds problems.