''Elect the Dead'': leftwing politics, eccentricity and 'Beethoven's C***'

Serj Tankian will always have a special place in my heart, partly due to the fact that System of a Down stole my gig-cherry at the tender age of 14, and partly because of his uncompromising commitment to revolutionary politics.

Tankian has campaigned throughout his career for recognition of the Armenian genocide - committed by the Ottoman Empire in the First World War; estimates place the number of Armenians killed at around 1.5 million – as well as created Axis of Justice, a non-profit organisation formed with Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, with the mission of bringing together “fans of music around the world and local political organizations to effectively organize around issues of peace, human rights, and economic justice”. He even boldly released an article titled “Understanding Oil” on System of a Down’s website, detailing the causes and consequences of 9/11 two days after the attack.

So it comes as no surprise that Elect the Dead is filled with vitriolic attacks on the American foreign policy, global warming and other ills in present day society. 'The Unthinking Majority', the second track on the album, stands as proof of this, managing to criticise anti-depressants as a way of enforcing political complacency, the “oil brigade” and American conceptions of democracy simultaneously.

It’s a relief for this reviewer to see a mainstream musician unafraid to put outspoken political criticism in their music and most importantly, do it well; especially since the most successful performers of this, Rage Against The Machine, disappeared before the War on Terror began - and lets just forget about Greenday’s ham-fisted attempts of American Idiot.

There’s also the trademark eccentricity of the lyrics which characterised many of the songs Tankian wrote for System of a Down such as the track 'Beethoven’s Cunt,' surely a nominee for “most beautiful song title of 2007”.

But Elect The Dead is not simply a left wing manifesto put to music: Tankian is, above all, a great musician. A classically trained singer, his vocals have a distinctive quality borne from his middle-eastern roots and range from mournful wails to tenor operatics. Furthermore, with the exception of 'Empty Walls,' 'Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition' and 'Unthinking Majority,' most of the songs are easily open to interpretation. 'Sky is Over' could just as easily be about a failed romance as it could global warming. There’s also the trademark eccentricity of the lyrics which characterised many of the songs Tankian wrote for System of a Down such as the track 'Beethoven’s Cunt,' surely a nominee for “most beautiful song title of 2007”. Tankian also wrote and performed every instrument on the album: guitars, bass, piano, synthesizers, bells, even the melodica, which easily makes up for the lack of cowbell. The album is self-produced on his label Serjical Strike (I see what he did there!) and produced very well, although perhaps slightly suffering from too much emphasis on the vocals. It is also a lot less “metal” then one would expect from his System of a Down past, which is not to say it doesn’t have its share of heavy riffs, but there is also an equal amount of piano introductions and acoustic guitars. Most surprising, or disappointing depending on your view point, is a complete absence of guitar solos.

This is an impressive solo effort that ticks all the boxes a fan of Tankian’s work was hoping for, even if you never got into System of a Down this album should appeal to fans of singer songwriters. If you took Bob Dylan, gave him an amphetamine enema, several tours of Baghdad and a copy of the complete works of Marx and Engels, this may well be the result. But don’t take my word for it, all the tracks are available to listen to free on Serj’s MySpace, so I highly recommend you give them a try.

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