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Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)

 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
type
TVTItem
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
label
Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
page
MezmerizeHypnotize
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
comment
Mezmerize and Hypnotize are the fourth and fifth albums by System of a Down, respectively. Released months apart in 2005, both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and enjoyed extensive mainstream success thanks to the singles "B.Y.O.B."note stands for "Bring Your Own Bombs", "Question!", "Hypnotize", and "Lonely Day". Originally intended as a double album, the records were split to reflect the band's choice to let their audience absorb each individual track rather than giving unfair attention toward the hits.The album focuses on more alternative elements than their previous Progressive Metal albums, such as soaring acoustics, string sections, and more direct lyrics. In particular, the songs focus more on Lighter and Softer bits with Epic Riffs laden throughout, such as on the non-singles "Radio/Video", "Sad Statue", "Lost in Hollywood", "Holy Mountains", and "Soldier Side". In other songs such as "Stealing Society" and "U-Fig", the album has a more experimental aesthetic than before, especially since they straddle Metal Screams with minimalist guitar pieces.Guitarist Daron Malakian was the leading creative force on this album and co-produced it along with Rick Rubin. This led to some tension within the band, especially since vocalist Serj Tankian, who had previously composed most of the songs, decided to focus more on his solo career during the production and recording. The band has not released an album since, mainly due to Serj's reluctance to overcompensate and to put out something poor in quality, since it is regarded as a Tough Act to Follow. However, after an extended hiatus, the members have still continued to perform together live since 2009, and each band member has had successful solo careers.Notably, "B.Y.O.B." won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance, and remains their only Top 40 hit to this day.
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)
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2023-09-07T06:44:01Z
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2023-09-07T06:44:01Z
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_16d8476f
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Protest Song
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_16d8476f
comment
Protest Song: "B.Y.O.B." It's about how the media treated the war in Iraq as lighthearted fare instead of accepting the war's basic disregard toward human dignity in the area. "U-Fig" builds on this, mentioning how military recruitment ads are really divisive propaganda.
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_16d8476f
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_2044af1
type
Faceless Goons
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_2044af1
comment
Faceless Goons: In the "B.Y.O.B." music video, Mecha-Mooks with words such as "Capitalism" or "Greed" storm a party and transform its members, including the band itself, into the same goons. It's a strange critique on how media forces us to think a certain way.
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Song Style Shift
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_43d39d6b
comment
Song Style Shift: Most of them, but "Question!", with all its crazy time signature changes (5/4, 9/8, 6/4, 4/4, 3/4) takes the cake. "Radio/Video" has intense choruses, soft verses, then a really soft and then loud chorus, a reggae-style verse, and a solo.
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We Have Become Complacent
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_4bca5b2e
comment
We Have Become Complacent: "Sad Statue" mainly revolves around how our generation has grown complacent to the toxic influences society has on us, and how we cannot accept that we might be the last generation of civilization as we know it. Also, "Hypnotize." Which calls out young people recognizing all the problems in the world but choosing to do nothing about them.
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Downer Ending
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_4e3d253b
comment
Downer Ending: "Lost in Hollywood" on Mezmerize is a sad reflection on the way fame eats people up. This directly contrasts with "Old School Hollywood", which is a silly track about washed-up stars trying to maintain their own relevance. On Hypnotize, "Soldier Side" is about the human costs of war and how people's faith in God die along with their loved ones. This contrasts "B.Y.O.B", "Stealing Society", and "U-Fig", which mostly mock the capitalist element to war.
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Wham Line
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_4e7c4536
comment
Wham Line: "Tentative" has Where do you expect us to go when the bombs fall? "Sad Statue" has the bridge "What is it in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"
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Step Up to the Microphone
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_51f90774
comment
Step Up to the Microphone: Daron's backing vocals were already becoming gradually more prominent with Toxicity and Steal This Album!, but this pair of albums has him become the co-lead singer with Serj.
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Bookends
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_53224e46
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Bookends: "Soldier Side (intro)" and "Soldier Side" on either album.
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_5d5cc3fd
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Through the Eyes of Madness
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_5d5cc3fd
comment
Through the Eyes of Madness: The music video for "Question!", which first shows life metaphorically as though it is a play: a young couple falls in love before the woman eats a berry, dies, and gets carried away by Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It then shifts to show reality; the woman died during childbirth, and the baby is born to symbolize the renewal of life.
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Non-Appearing Title
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_67784113
comment
Non-Appearing Title: "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm on This Song". Considering the fact that this song is a weird Anti-Drug song, this makes the title all the more ironic.
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Epic Rocking
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_74149c93
comment
Epic Rocking: "Holy Mountains", "Lost in Hollywood", and even "Radio/Video" with all its genre shifts throughout.
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Hooker with a Heart of Gold
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_77063cd7
comment
Hooker with a Heart of Gold: "She's Like Heroin", which fetishizes having sex with a more than cooperative hooker who's willing to let her client crossdress. One of the weirder tracks of the album, admittedly.
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Breather Episode
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_80a247a9
comment
Breather Episode: Hypnotize in general has a lot of gloomy, slow songs. However, it also includes "Kill Rock 'N Roll", an upbeat number about running over a bunny, and "Vicinity of Obscenity", a piece of Word-Salad Humor which encourages the listener to "beat the meat".
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Questioning Title?
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_99699561
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Questioning Title?: "Question!" zig-zags this.
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
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Mood Whiplash
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_a4c37cbe
comment
Mood Whiplash: Mezmerize ends with the comical "Old School Hollywood" followed by the more morose "Lost in Hollywood." Hypnotize's "Holy Mountains" fades into the sexual "Vicinity of Obscenity" and then the even more sexual "She's Like Heroin". Then it closes off with two of System's softest, most depressing songs, "Lonely Day" and "Soldier Side".
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_aa4a4c57
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Kids Rock
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_aa4a4c57
comment
Kids Rock: Somewhat disturbingly, during the final chorus of "Cigaro", a bunch of kids can be heard screaming the lyrics.
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Intellectually Supported Tyranny
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_abfff6e9
comment
Intellectually Supported Tyranny: "Sad Statue", which references in part how conquerors who commit vile acts are often more intelligent and "eloquent" than the average person:
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Lyrical Shoehorn
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_ac69f953
comment
Lyrical Shoehorn: "B.Y.O.B." has really oblique verses; most of the words fit together just for the sake of rhyming. However, the words do sound very profound especially with the song's anti-war subtext.
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Thrash Metal
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_b65839aa
comment
Thrash Metal: Most of Cigaro. Attack and Sad Statue have their moments but BYOB is the song that plays this the most straight except for the soft chorus, there are no fancy solos but the riffs are as technical as they are heavy, complete with tempo changes to create an accelerating feel.
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Child Soldiers
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Child Soldiers: Children being drafted into war and dying far from home in "Soldier Side".
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 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_cb092754
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Musical Pastiche
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_cb092754
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Musical Pastiche: Several reviewers have suggested that "Lost in Hollywood" is the band's tribute to Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)".
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One-Word Title
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_d0f0a80d
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One-Word Title: "Revenga", "Cigaro", "Question!", "Attack", "Dreaming", "Hypnotize", "Tentative", and of course the album titles.
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Album Title Drop
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_dbc664dd
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Album Title Drop: Mezmerize is named for a lyric in "Hypnotize", which is on the Hypnotize side of the album: "Mezmerize the simple-minded/Propaganda leaves you blinded".
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Lyrical Dissonance
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_dbfd6b8
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Lyrical Dissonance: "Kill Rock 'n Roll" is about how Daron ran over a bunny while going to work one day. Despite this, the song itself is very silly and lighthearted, with a strangely moving bridge.
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Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide"
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_de56f2bf
comment
Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": Justified in "Holy Mountains", which almost directly references the Armenian genocide (which the band is understandably vocal about, given that each member is Armenian). The song talks more about how difficult, but ultimately achievable, it is to move along from such a horrible mass killing. While it does call the perpetrators many things ("Demon" and "Sodomizer" being the standouts), it's more about how you should Earn Your Happy Ending by remembering it and calling attention to it, but not being bound by the chains of the past.
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Word Salad Lyrics
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_e18675e6
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Word Salad Lyrics: "Vicinity of Obscenity" is deliberately nonsensical; according to Serj, Dadaism was the primary source of inspiration for the song. "Violent Pornography", seemingly about how sex and violence in the media makes us desensitized to these issues in real life, has this strange lyric:
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Surprisingly Gentle Song
 Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music) / int_ea454c4a
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Surprisingly Gentle Song: "Lonely Day", "Hypnotize", and "Lost in Hollywood"; neither have the extremely jarring Song Style Shifts System is pretty much notorious for.
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Mezmerize/Hypnotize (Music)

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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