10 Rock Music Bands That Quit On Top
3. System Of A Down
While the Californian alt-metallers are yet to officially call it a day, the writing has been on the wall for SOAD in recent years. There seems to be a little intra-band frostiness, with efforts to keep things going failing to launch. It may be time that they hang up their downtuned guitars and get on with something else.
When they do, they’ll have one of the finest legacies of any 21st century metal band to look back on. A heavy group that appeals to the otherwise-metal averse, SOAD’s five albums are a wild journey of remarkable ambition and ability moving hand in hand.
The self-titled debut is all manic energy, with “Sugar” its most emblematic song, a jerky banger that’s funny without being stupid. 2001’s breakthrough Toxicity remains their high water mark, deftly handling politics on the informative “Prison Song” and turning gibberish into an art form on “Toxicity”.
2005 saw SOAD double dose, giving us albums Mezmerize and Hypnotize, two wildly creative records that even gained the band a hard rock Grammy. Becoming so huge without a shred of compromise takes some doing.