At this point it feels safe to assume that we're never getting a new System Of A Down record. The latest blow to fans' hopes and dreams comes from System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian, who mentioned in an interview with Sobre La Dosis that the band is still on "musical hiatus/creative hiatus" before talking about his upcoming solo record.
"Not in the near future. We're still on a musical hiatus/creative hiatus, but we [played] at Sick New World in Las Vegas. And I've got a solo record coming out very soon. That's heavy and it's big. It's not hip-hop, it's just crazy. Usually, all my side projects have been kind of hip-hop-y or electro, but I went down and wanted to do something that felt right to me from day one. That's my DNA, so look out for the solo record."
As for new System Of A Down, it seems that vocalist Serj Tankian has been the holdup. Though he seemed to come around on the idea in recent years saying "we'll see what happens" and just kinda shrugging at the whole thing. Still, drummer John Dolmayan and major advocate for a new album expressed his anger over the situation in an interview with the Battleline Podcast.
"Serj hasn't really wanted to be in the band for a long time. And quite frankly, we probably should have parted ways around 2006. We tried to get together multiple times to make an album, but there were certain rules set in place that made it difficult to do so and maintain the integrity of what System Of A Down stood for. So we couldn't really come together and agree. And part of that is Serj's fault, and part of that is my fault, and Shavo's and Daron's as well.
"But at the end of the day, if you have a majority of the band thinking one way and one person thinking the other, it's very difficult to come together and make music thinking that person is important. And every member of this band is very important to the overall sound of the band. And you'll know this by listening to anybody's side projects; they're never quite that good compared to System. In fact, I think a lot of 'em aren't very good at all. And when you compare that to what we do together as System, you understand why the team matters and having certain talents come together and merge matter and that magic thing captured doing that matters."
Dolmayan then elaborated on why he chose 2006 as the year he felt Tankian should've quit, saying "I think we should have moved on, and if Serj didn't wanna be in the band at that time, we should have just moved on and done it with somebody else. But that's what happens when you're loyal and you really wanna make it work; you'll put up with things that may be detrimental to the health of the band or the health of the situation.
"Maybe it would have been better if we moved on and got another singer for an album or two and continued to make music and brought Serj back later if he wanted to come back. That probably would have been better. But as it is, I think we wasted 15, maybe 20 years of our lives waiting."
