Current Events > ITT: I rank every System of a Down song in tiers, and rank their albums.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Peephole is definitely top tier.

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Question! Needs to be on God tier

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Shotgunnova posted...

Agree there too I missed it at first. Science is a great song.

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Irony posted...

Bounce is top tier though

It's solid, but there's quite a few I like better.

Flockaveli posted...

Fuck off a million times over.

<3

MabusIncarnate posted...

Holy Mountains is my favorite song by them, respect for having it in your top tier. ADD is in my top 5 also.

My only real hard disagree is Chop Suey on top of your list, it's a decent/good for me.

Fantastic band for sure, I really love just about everything they have done.

Also if you have never heard it, look up Shame on youtube, i'd post it but the lyrics are questionable for sure.

Holy Mountains is probably my favorite now too; Prison Song and Chop Suey are right behind it for me though. I can def understand not loving Chop Suey, it's overplayed to all hell, but it is also the song that introduced me to them, so I can't help but love it.

EffectAndCause posted...

I knew this topic was gonna piss me the fuck off.

THIS IS LITERALLY THEIR BEST SONG

I'll admit that SoaD is the album I've listened to the least, but I did just relisten to that song again and... it seems alright. I could maybe see bumping it up to as high as the good tier, but it honestly just doesn;t stand out all that much to me.

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Shotgunnova posted...

That's the reason I flipped out on my post LOL. Obviously TC hasn't been doing a very good job of listening to SOAD for the last few months.

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idk, on all my album listens Science just never stood out much to me.

*shrug*

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Alright, I gave Science yet another listen and going out of my way to listen to it speicifcaly, I do like it a bit more; I'd be more confident in bumping it up a tier or two than P.L.U.C.K. tbh.

That said, I still don't think it's even in the top 3 songs on Toxicity.

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Where does Marmalade rank?

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They're trying to build a prison...

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and fuck it, I'll go ahead and put the ones from God tier in order of my absolute favorites:

God Tier:
6.Spiders (SoaD)
5.Chop Suey (Toxicity)
4.Mr. Jack (Steal This Album!)
3.Violent Pornography (Mezmerize)
2.Prison Song (Toxicity)
1.Holy Mountains (Hypnotize)

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Different strokes and whatnot, I never fault people for their personal tastes in music. It's all opinion. I personally don't like much of any Daron led songs, especially when you have a vocalist like Serj. I like the song Lonely Day, but something about his voice has always irked me, and even moreso because him not being able to sing more was a main reason why the band broke up altogether.

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Ego Brain is probably my favorite song but your list is pretty good overall

MabusIncarnate posted...

Different strokes and whatnot, I never fault people for their personal tastes in music. It's all opinion. I personally don't like much of any Daron led songs, especially when you have a vocalist like Serj. I like the song Lonely Day, but something about his voice has always irked me, and even moreso because him not being able to sing more was a main reason why the band broke up altogether.

Overall I agree that Serj is the better vocalist, but I feel like Daron has some pretty solid songs as well.

That being said, that's a very solid reason to dislike the songs he led on.

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Shotgunnova posted...

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I was expecting to get hate, but Science wasn't the one I expected to get hate for, I'll be real >_>

I don't think I've ever heard anyone bring it up before. >_>


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dont worry op, science is boring and has some of the worst lyrics of any soad song

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Top 5 for me is probably

Holy Mountains
ADD
Fuck the System
Prison Song
Suggestions

Honestly though, I could toss in 10 songs as #5, Forest, Ego Brain, Deer Dance, among others are some of my favorites also.

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Glad to see other people appreciate Prison Song; I feel like I don't see it brought up often, which is a shame, because it's a fucking amazing song.

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I came in the topic and was thinking "Where'd they put Holy Mountains". And I so expected it to not be in the top tier, that I skipped over it, and went down every other tier to see where you put it, only to go back up and see it at the top.

So I just want to say, great job putting it up top where it belongs.

You have a great taste in System, my favorites would mostly come out of your top 2 tiers. You didn't just jump to the singles, but you really chose the best songs.

I agree with the other users as well, that Science is your most strange choice for a bottom tier.

BYOB just isn't that good, and it sucked having to hear it on the air constantly. But that's nothing compared to Lonely Day.

I'm convinced that Tankian simply lost a bet to Malakian, and the result was Lonely Day.

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JimmyFraska posted...

I came in the topic and was thinking "Where'd they put Holy Mountains". And I so expected it to not be in the top tier, that I skipped over it, and went down every other tier to see where you put it, only to go back up and see it at the top.

So I just want to say, great job putting it up top where it belongs.

You have a great taste in System, my favorites would mostly come out of your top 2 tiers. You didn't just jump to the singles, but you really chose the best songs.

I agree with the other users as well, that Science is your most strange choice for a bottom tier.

When the song goes into "They have all returned, resting on the mountainside" it amps me up so much, and shows a lot of why Serj's voice is so amazing and why the band is so good.

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So, just relatively recently I've gotten into a HUGE System of a Down kick. Like, I'd always liked what I'd heard of them, but mostly only knew their big songs like Chop Suey, BYOB, Toxicity, Aerials, etc. But the last few months I've gotten like, super duper into them, listened to all of their albums several times, and just overall have become a legit fan.

So, Imma put all the songs off of their 5 albums into a tier list, cause fuck it, why not. I'm also gonna put what album each song is on with the ranking, and at the end rank all 5 of their albums.

Just to clarify, within the actual tiers themselves they're not in any particular order, just went through each album and put them in their respective tiers as I came across each song.

God Tier:
Spiders (SoaD)
Prison Song (Toxicity)
Chop Suey (Toxicity)
Mr. Jack (Steal This Album!)
Violent Pornography (Mezmerize)
Holy Mountains (Hypnotize)

Amazing:
ATWA (Toxicity)
Toxicity (Toxicity)
Roulette (Steal This Album!)
Radio/Video (Mezmerize)
B.Y.O.B. (Mezmerize)
Lost In Hollywood (Mezmerize)
Soldier Side (Hypnotize)

Great:
Suggestions (SoaD)
Needles (Toxicity)
Psycho (Toxicity)
Aerials (Toxicity)
Innervision (Steal This Album!)
I-E-A-I-A-I-O (Steal This Album!)
Fuck The System (Steal This Album!)
Question! (Mezmerize)
Attack (Hypnotize)
Vicinity Of Obscenity (Hypnotize)
She's Like Heroin (Hypnotize)
Lonely Day (Hypnotize)

Good:
Suite-Pee (SoaD)
Know (Soad)
Sugar (SoaD)
War? (SoaD)
Deer Dance (Toxicity)
Bounce (Toxicity)
Chic 'N' Stu (Steal This Album!)
A.D.D. (American Dream Denial) (Steal This Album!)
Soldier Side - Intro (Mezmerize)
Revenga (Mezmerize)
Cigaro (Mezmerize)
Sad Statue (Mezmerize)
Dreaming (Hypnotize)
Kill Rock 'n Roll (Hypnotize)
Hypnotize (Hypnotize)
Stealing Society (Hypnotize)

Decent, but didn't wow me much:
DDevil (SoaD)
Soil (SoaD)
Jet Pilot (Toxicity)
X (Toxicity)
Forest (Toxicity)
Shimmy (Toxicity)
Bubbles (Steal This Album!)
Boom! (Steal This Album!)
Nugens (Steal This Album!)
36 ( Steal This Album!)
Highway Song (Steal This Album!)
Ego Brain (Steal This Album!)
Streamline (Steal This Album!)
Thetawaves (Steal This Album!)
This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song (Mezmerize)
Old School Hollywood (Mezmerize)
Tentative (Hypnotize)
U-Fig (Hypnotize)

Forgettable/I didn't like much:
Mind (SoaD)
Peephole (SoaD)
CUBErt (SoaD)
Darts (SoaD)
P.L.U.C.K. (SoaD)
Science (Toxicity)
Arto (Toxicity)
Pictures (Steal This Album!)

Gonna rank the albums as a whole in the next post

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Bounce is top tier though

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Fuck off a million times over.

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Holy Mountains is my favorite song by them, respect for having it in your top tier. ADD is in my top 5 also.

My only real hard disagree is Chop Suey on top of your list, it's a decent/good for me.

Fantastic band for sure, I really love just about everything they have done.

Also if you have never heard it, look up Shame on youtube, i'd post it but the lyrics are questionable for sure.

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WafflehouseJK posted...

P.L.U.C.K. (SoaD)

I knew this topic was gonna piss me the fuck off.

THIS IS LITERALLY THEIR BEST SONG

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Overall thoughts on each album and ranking:

System of a Down:
All things considered, a pretty damn good first album. Spiders is absolutely phenomenal, and other solid songs, like Sugar and Suggestions for example, pull the album up. That being said, the second half of the album kind of becomes just super unmemorable to me and doesn't keep up with the pretty dope first half, making the album as a whole feel very uneven. Not a bad first album, but not great either.

Toxicity:
Now this is really where the band found their sound and really nailed it. Prison Song, Chop Suey, and Toxicity are the personal stand outs for me, but the vast majority of this album is solid to great, with only a couple of songs that I don't care for all that much for/won't go out of my way to listen to. Absolutely great album as a whole.

Steal This Album!
God damn I have such mixed feelings about this one. When it works, it works fucking amazingly. When it doesn't.... it doesn't. None of the songs are terrible, but a lot of them are very forgettable. But the ones that are great, like Mr. Jack and Roulette, are fucking phenomenal. Very tonally eclectic, and never really finds one clear vibe like most of their other albums. Mixed feelings towards this one.

Mezmerize and Hypnotize:
Seeing as this is a double album sorta deal, I'm gonna discuss both of these at once, especially since both are fucking amazing. Neither one has a single song that I outright hate or just couldn't vibe with, and even the weaker entries are pretty damn good. Overall I think Mezmerize has slightly more songs that I full on love, but Holy Mountains may genuinely be SoaD's best song ever, so they're pretty damn balanced.

Overall, I'd rank them:

Mezmerize > Hypnotize > Toxicity > Steal This Album! > System of a Down

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I kinda wanna do this sort of tier list for Pearl Jam since they're my favorite band, but Jesus fucking Christ would that be a lot of songs to go through >_>


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WafflehouseJK posted...

I kinda wanna do this sort of tier list for Pearl Jam since they're my favorite band, but Jesus fucking Christ would that be a lot of songs to go through >_>

Yeah honestly, but I think I stand pretty firm that Garden is my favorite song by them. You know my love for grunge. Also, your Mabus reminder to listen to more Bad Religion, my favorite band ever, and they have released so much music over the years that is high quality. My buddy a-c-a-b introduced me to Matt Pless also and this song kind of blew me away. He's not the best vocalist, but man his songwriting is unreal.

https://youtu.be/LTiWzNAQylM

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I agree with most of the list. Id put some higher like Revenga

also where is Sugar?

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MabusIncarnate posted...

Yeah honestly, but I think I stand pretty firm that Garden is my favorite song by them. You know my love for grunge. Also, your Mabus reminder to listen to more Bad Religion, my favorite band ever, and they have released so much music over the years that is high quality. My buddy a-c-a-b introduced me to Matt Pless also and this song kind of blew me away. He's not the best vocalist, but man his songwriting is unreal.

https://youtu.be/LTiWzNAQylM

Garden's a pretty great one, although as overplayed as it is, Jeremy is still probably my favorite of theirs, or at least up there for sure.

I actually have finally been getting into Bad Religion more, I have a few of their songs on my main playlist now; I really need to just sit down and listen through their discography at this point.

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Ermac posted...

I agree with most of the list. Id put some higher like Revenga

also where is Sugar?

I put it in the "Good" tier.

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WafflehouseJK posted...

Garden's a pretty great one, although as overplayed as it is, Jeremy is still probably my favorite of theirs, or at least up there for sure.

I actually have finally been getting into Bad Religion more, I have a few of their songs on my main playlist now; I really need to just sit down and listen through their discography at this point.

Hopefully Watch It Die is among those songs, him and Eddie Vedder duo on it.

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Im only capable of ranking the albums in two tiers, with Toxicity/Mez/Hyp being in the higher tier.

Favorite songs:
Sugar
Prison Song
Toxicity
Shimmy
Chic N Stu
Cigaro
Violent Pornography
Lost in Hollywood
Hypnotize
Shes Like Heroin
Soldier Side

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I just like their first two albums, with their first album especially being one of my favorites. I just dont like the sound they evolved into after that. Just doesnt do it for me.


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masticatingman posted...

I just like their first two albums, with their first album especially being one of my favorites. I just dont like the sound they evolved into after that. Just doesnt do it for me.

IMO none of their albums are bad, but their first album just didn't really click with me all that much, especially compared to how much I clicked with Toxicity, Mezmerize and Hypnotize

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agreed on that front

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MabusIncarnate posted...

Hopefully Watch It Die is among those songs, him and Eddie Vedder duo on it.

Watch it die is fantastic

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bump

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Damn, no one got my reference earlier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

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Shotgunnova posted...

Damn, no one got my reference earlier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

LOL I got it! I was just gonna post about it! Great touch.

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Shotgunnova posted...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
Take me down from the ridge where the summer

lol, RIP

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bump

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Bounce!

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Nuguns is still one of my favorites of theirs. The instrumental bit of it is stellar.

Edit: Steal This Album! has to be my favorite album as well. It's the only one I can listen start to finish and jam the whole way through.
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They're pretty good when they're not being silly. Like Aerials. Not a big fan of the Chop Suey type songs.

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