Serj Tankian - “Elect the Dead”

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by First Oni | Nov 28 2007

The lead vocalist for system of a Down (SOAD) has definitely made a name for himself. He began working on a solo project immediately after the “Mesmerize/Hypnotize” SOAD albums and the result is “Elect the Dead”.

At first listen, one might think it’s not much different than SOAD. Hard guitars, crazy lyrics, and his own staple, erratic vocals. However, the feel of this album has a much different sound. I personally applaud Serj Tankian for sticking to his genre. There are too many times that a rock icon comes out with a solo album that is completely different from his previous work, just for the sake of being different. Instead, this album has many differences from SOAD, while still keeping with his own original sound. The major difference that I quite like is the inclusion of piano on the majority of the tracks. It sets the songs apart, making them a bit softer, even amongst the thrashing guitars.

The lyrics are great and feature lines like “We don’t need your hypocrisy, execute real democracy” or “We are the cause of a world that’s gone wrong” or “Praise the lord, and pass the ammunition”. They are as politically charged as ever, but who would have expected anything else? At the same time, there are a few songs where the chorus gets a little redundant, such as on “Money” or “Baby”, where he yells the title of the songs more times than you care to hear.

Having recently seen the video for “Empty Walls”, I have to say, as well, as that his vision for this album was very good. The video shows a group of kids playing war in an indoor playground. Everything from shooting each other with sticky dart guns, confetti car bombs, and pulling down the teddy bear statue and dancing around it. Then, they look outside the window and see a real solider funeral motorcade, which bring a sense of sadness on the otherwise fun-filled video. Very gripping and poignant.

After a few listens, you should see that it’s a fantastic album that stands apart from his work with SOAD and makes him a great force in rock.

Rating: 8/10
Tags: review, music, rock, elect the dead, system of the down, serj tankian, soad

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