Songs are average as hell imo, but the cause is extremely just.

Genocidal Humanoidz is pretty decent imo. Protect our Lands reminds me of Lonely Day which is not a good thing at all.

I screamed.

Kinda sad that war against their country is the cause they are making music again

oh hell yes

Genocidal Humanoidz is fun.
But man, Protect The Land sucks

Protec The Land 2,5/5
Genocidal Humanoidz 3/5
and yes, Erdogan is on big motherfucker

1st song is just another Scars On Broadway track with Serj on guest duties, but fuck thaf 2nd song is no doubt a legit old school SOAD song so that’s pretty shocking to hear in 2020.

[2]
I'm happy there is something new from these guys. But I feel like they shouldn't write another album if that means there will be more tracks like Protect The Land. Daron somehow becomes a more boring guitarist than modern Tom Morello

Kinda sad that war against their country is the cause they making music again [2]

Both songs are pretty enjoyable though.

bm soad
bm soad

[2]
I want Daron to scream or to shut the fuck up

m/

Protect this land would sound so much better if they had toxicity era Serj unleashed. Like, in my head I can almost hear how it should sound but they just don’t quite hit it.

Still, who fucking cares THEY ARE BACK.

Yeah, Protect The Land just feels like a Scars on Broadway track with Serj guest vocalling. Admirable message but it just doesn't do much for me.

Genocidal Humanoidz on the other hand is primo SOAD. Feels like a much heavier Innervision.

Nice to have them back, the songs are pretty average but it's for a very worthy cause.

has anyone checked on John now that Trump is losing?

pretty much the last headline I expected to read this morning

That second track actually sounded like one of the quirkier cuts from toxicity/STA era!

First track very average but as said, good cause and great to hear them together again!

good news

I'm just happy to hear Daron and Serj harmonising again tbh, they still got it.

Good songs, but really sad what they have to stand against...
Fuck Azerbaijan and fuck Erdogan.

Genocidal Humanoidz is great (aside from the word "humanoidz").

Ye, that song goes hard tbh.

Protect the Land is meh.

I would love an album but maybe that isn't their focus right now. What they're doing with Serj's voice sounds good, a bit back and reverbed, songs more in the style of Scars but obviously still SOAD.

They sound like geriatrics, so flat and lifeless.

For two hastily put together songs, these are not bad. Genocidial Humanoidz does sound like classic SOAD.

Also I have to point out I'm glad Serj isn't using his nasally mickey mouse voice on these songs, the same voice he uses on live performances nowadays. My fear was always that if they were to record new stuff his voice would sound awful, but he came through here.

Guess I'll comment here for historical reasons

Protect the Land was boring, but i really liked Genocidal Humanoidz. Never thought we'd get more from them, 2020 is so fuckin weird.

the craziest thing to happen in 2020


not expecting a full LP but hey 2 songs are better than 0

Kinda wanted Serj to go a little more over the top on either song but I guess the fact that there exists new soad material in tyoul 2020 is good enough

Genocidal Humanoidz is pretty good. Sounds like they picked up right where they left off. Protect the land isnpretty average though

First song is so boring
Second is fun but definitely nothing special

Serj definitely sounds like he's half-assing these.

i just don't dig soad sorry guys

Solid cuts, sound like SOAD, not complaining.

@antichrist no one fucking cares, sorry dude

neither do i lol

Man, these are not good.

Always thought these guys sucked, but these 2 tracks are pretty nice

that's interesting cause they have the exact same songs, but 10x better in their discography

not to say these are bad tracks or anything

Still can't believe this is real.

I probably won't be listening to Protect the Land much, but Genocidal Humanoidz brings that classic SOAD energy I've missed

but ya humanoidz goes a fair bit, the first is pretty bad

Want more Serj-presence.

he was too busy hiding behind these empty walls

This band never clicked with me and this is no exception.

Agreed. Biggest complaint about Hypnotize and even Mezmerized was Darren's dominance in certain songs. Best SOAD is when Serj is front and center with hints of Darren.

Humanoidz is pretty good. Other track feels a bit too propaganda-esque but that might just be cos I don't like pro-military lyrics.

Seems like this was mostly a Darren thing.

has anyone checked on John now that Trump is losing? [2]

Genocidal Humanoidz is the better song by far.

First song lacks a good chorus and it's pretty by the numbers. Humanoidz is cool

I'd love to hear a new album but if its focused on Daron like the last albums and these tracks then fuck it

Genuinely digging Genocidal Humanoids. Protect the Land is pretty lame though.

It's a trite thing to say but System of a Down was always a very overrated band, because they felt so fresh and new for example.
They have their own sound, they made quite a few great songs, but were celebrated like a band ten times better than they actually were.
They left everybody with a huge desire for more when I don't think they truly had much more to offer.

I have said this before Protect The Land is ok. But Genocidal Humanoidz I like a bit more it does remind me of SOADs older work a bit.

I wish "Genocidal Humanoidz" had the music video, it's the far more memorable and interesting song while the other one feels like a 5-minute afterthought

I like the cause but the songs are bland

Genocidal Humanoidz is ok but I think they could have come up with a more complete song after 15 years

wow this sucks

Protect the Land is meh, boring latter half of the album track.

Genocidal Humanoidz is great though!

This does suck.

Genocidal Humanoidz was great.

I Love System of the Downs but this not

Protect the Land is pretty lame tbh.

Latter half is cool, but man that chorus is WEAK

Not too shabby. Will probs donate and dload the songs

god i hate this band

Daron has been the focal point since Mezmerize, more Serj would be nice.

He's fine in small doses and when harmonising with Serj, can be grating after a while though.

I think y’all are just pretending to actually like this cause it’s soad, but damn

I genuinely enjoy Humanoidz, the other track is whatever.

I really respect the cause these guys made the songs for but I didn't like either track tbh.

If this was released by another band y’all would trash it

this first song is already getting trashed lol

this is like phil collins shitty when it comes to the politics

This band is so fucking horrible lol

pretty decent return, i thought both were decent

Protect the Land is the most terribly awful phoned in watered down diet lowest common denominator vapid version of this band possible rofl

[2]

This sucks

"I think y’all are just pretending to actually like this cause it’s soad, but damn"

Who the fuck pretends to like stuff, this is a narrative high schoolers came up with so they could call other people posers.

Lots of people pretend to like stuff, people be whack like that

"If this was released by another band y’all would trash it"

Lolwut? Literally everyone is trashing the first song.

Who the fuck pretends to like stuff, this is a narrative high schoolers came up with so they could call other people posers.

Gonna go the same way as RATM

"Protect the Land" is boring as hell, but at least it's not lame like most of Mez/Hyp... I'll give it a solid 2.5/5

"Genocidal Humanoidz" is just flat out bad, like sounds like it belongs on Hypnotize, ugh 2/5

Daron should just remain quiet and let Serj do his thing. Ruined these songs for me.

idiotically bad band with a brainwashed political banner behind them.

Yeah, first song is really bland. You would think they'd put effort into a song for such an important cause, but this sounds phoned in. Second song is a lot closer to what we like about SOAD.

both songs rule

“Genocidal Humanoidz" is just flat out bad, like sounds like it belongs on Hypnotize, ugh”
Saying that like it’s a bad thing lol

Hot take time: mesmerize/hypnotize had a lot of their best material. Probably come back to those albums more than any of their other ones honestly

Why can't Serj just get the chance to be the vocalist on his own? I swear that guitarist's voice is fucking annoying.

"Who the fuck pretends to like stuff, this is a narrative high schoolers came up with so they could call other people posers."

high schoolers and people with naughty intentions ;)

Dang wasn't expecting to hear blast beatz... nice

Aside from Serj's voice sounding a bit thin these aren't too bad but just not that memorable

We want a bm soad. That s it!

@reich true!

yeah damon malakan or whatever his name is has always been insanely annoying...i really hate his voice, tbh. he has this obnoxious shrill whine of a voice and his lyrics are usually fucking awful. he had great riffs tho, should focus on that.

he's written the lyrics to SOAD's best songs tho so idk about that

Daron is solid at background harmonizing vocals. Soad sounds their best when serj is in the forefront and daron does harmonies

such a lonely day
and it's mine
the most lonliest day of my life
such a lonely day
should be banned
shouldn't exist

its pretty clear that they weren't looking to just make a banger for the fans but to raise awareness in general, and get the message across. if you notice the songs are very clear in what they mean, which isn't the case for their other material for the most part. and the music doesn't distract from the lyrics, im sure this is intentional, it's very important they raise awareness about this. they can put a lot of eyes on whats happening in armenia who wouldn't have known about it before

that's no excuse for the music being shitty though

It could have been a banger for awareness, but since it’s sucks less people are going to be aware.

from what i understand, the belonging of that region is pretty disputed geopolitically, and much like the displacement and killing of people that's happening now was also perpetuated by Armenia back in the 80's and 90's. what i find so pathetically cheap about the SOAD letter and Armenia's PR generally, is that Putin and his very sanction of the taking back of the region aren't mentioned anywhere. there are Russian war bases right on the border where the fighting is happening, who aren't doing anything to stop it, and the reason for that is that the Armenian government did something to piss Putin off.

Yeah "don't piss Putin off"...come on dude...they re just speaking for people who do not choose war imo
..and against all kinds of totalitarian govs who choose conflict for them

"if you notice the songs are very clear in what they mean, which isn't the case for their other material for the most part"

practically at least 1/3 if not 2/3 of their songs are anti-war songs and it's pretty easy to get the sentiment behind them so these two aren't really outliers in any sense in their discography

dude, read the statement they put out. that's nationalist propaganda to a tee. i take your point overall, but not mentioning the man who more or less controls both countries involved is fishy.

These are scars on Broadway songs with guest harmonies by Serj.
Good cause sure, but it's fine to call this material out on being bullshit by dickhead Daron.
Not interested in new SOAD unless Daron stops trying to be the lead singer/songwriter.

Daron has always been the lead songwriter bro

uh

He always was yea. Genocidal Humanoidz feels like SOAD tho, it's very Hypnotize, but like the good stuff off that record

Such a lonely day

Should be BAENNND

I need to make a tally of the amount of different spellings of Daron there have been.

Damon Macaroni

Darryn Malkovia

aaaaaaight
Genocidal Humanoidz does slap

no shit

“So david came to me and said ‘i’ve got something already written to make the process go quicker” - Shavo in a recent interview. So that explains why Protect The Land is so average. But i have to say, these songs definitely worked to raise my awareness, and re-injected my love of System of a Down, a band i haven’t listened to in years and used to be a top 5 band. It’s really nice to have them back, and i hope they make an album.

u guys r so lame for not liking this lol

"this"? There are two songs. People generally seem to like one of them.

Smart move dropping something as drab as Protect the Land to make the toothless Cigaro knock-off Genocidal Humanoidzzzz look like a return to form

^ you suck massive ass

What of it?

As far as bands coming back from the grave after 15 years while also definitely hating each other, this is about as good of a comeback as I would expect. Could've been way worse

These songs are really growing on me. Give em a few more listens, the heavy groove of Protect the Land and the energetic riffing in Genocidal Humanoidz need a minute to settle in.

Glad they’re back

Yeah, Man, these songs are just so complex, don’t know how anyone could possibly get a feel for all those perfect fourths and fifths repeating over and over in 4/4 without at least 15 listens. Real forward thinking shit