Metal
System Of A Down have put «Johnny» on streaming services for the first time. The song has existed for a quarter of a century but had never had its own digital release: it only appeared on international editions of «Toxicity» and on a seven-inch single released in the UK alongside «Chop Suey!».
It arrives as part of the record’s 25th-anniversary reissue, out on smoky red vinyl bundled with a one-sided seven-inch — «Johnny» on side A and a commemorative etching on side B — and a poster.
The reissue also corrects an error the record had carried since 2001: the hidden closing track, credited for twenty-five years as «Arto», finally appears under its real name, «Der Voghormia». The confusion came from the musician featured on it, Armenian artist Arto Tunçboyacıyan; the correct title is a liturgical formula from the Armenian Church that translates roughly as «Lord, have mercy».
«Toxicity» came out on 4 September 2001, produced by Rick Rubin, and debuted straight at number one on the US chart; it’s since gone seven-times platinum in the United States and sold around fifteen million copies worldwide. «Chop Suey!» passed two billion streams on Spotify this past May.
The record came out exactly a week before 11 September 2001, and «Chop Suey!» ended up on the list of songs major US radio networks deemed unsuitable in the attacks’ aftermath. The band was made up of four sons of the Armenian diaspora in Los Angeles, with Serj Tankian on vocals, blending traditional Armenian musical scales with thrash riffs, constant tempo changes, and lyrics about the war on drugs, the California desert or their country’s foreign policy.
The band is marking the reissue with stadium dates, some shared with Faith No More. They haven’t released a new record since «Hypnotize» (2005) — just two singles in 2020 — and none has been announced.
Text by Sílvia Comellas