10 Rock Albums That You Were Never Supposed To Hear
6. Steal This Album - System of a Down
The era of file sharing ended up being a bit of a mixed blessing for artists in retrospect. While some musicians relished the opportunity to get their music directly to their audience like this, some of the more high profile court cases with Lars Ulrich from Metallica made a lot of rock stars out to be money-hungry dictators of your favorite tunes. Then again, when an entire album ends up getting leaked online before its even set for release, you start to think that maybe those money-hungry people have a point.
As System of a Down were putting together songs for what would be their third record, they were shocked to learn that a lot of their initial demos and finished songs were actually making the rounds online under the pseudonym Toxicity II. Though this would be the perfect time to panic, System ended up making the best of the bad situation by taking a more DIY approach.
Released somewhat bare, Steal This Album! is in direct response to the controversy, as the band continue to write some scathing hard rock songs while keeping true to their punk ethos. Considering that a band like System have always been about rebelling against unjust authority, a move like this is probably one of the most logical album rollouts you could have made.