System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan recently streamed the band rehearsing "Cigaro" for their April 27 appearance at Sick New World. That footage has since made its way to YouTube courtesy of the Victims Of A Down channel, and you can check it out above.
Despite having Sick New World and a show with Deftones on the books for 2024, there doesn't seem to be any new System Of A Down material in sight. According to System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian in a 2023 interview with Sobre La Dosis, the band was still on a musical hiatus.
"Not in the near future," said Odadjian at the time. "We're still on a musical hiatus/creative hiatus, but we [played] at Sick New World in Las Vegas [in 2023]. 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."
Dolmayan has been a major advocate for a new album, and expressed his anger over the situation in an interview with the Battleline Podcast in 2022.
"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."
