Thank God for the Internet....well at least if you're a System of A Down fan. System, much like Dave Matthews Band, recorded a slew of songs that were never intended to be released to the public,
well at least not anytime soon. But because of the leaks of the unfinished material they decided to let fans hear the cleaned up material instead of the raw cut. Unlike Dave Matthews Band's "Busted Stuff"
System of a Down seem to capture the energy of thier first recordings and make it sound more mature (That's not to say that "Busted Stuff" was a bad album.). The album is basically a b-sides album to the songs
that weren't put on "Toxicity" and System wants to stress that this is not thier third album. But it very well could be if you wanted to think of it that way. The songs still has major shades of "Toxicity" on it
but it is also a much more politically driven album (Think songs like "Deer Dance" on "Toxicity").
System shows on songs like "Boom" or "Mr. Jack" that they could even rival other politically driven bands such as Rage Against The Machine for musical professionalism. But, unlike Rage, System also shows
that they can have a sense of humor amidst all the political angst on the opening track "Chik n Stu" (example lyric: "Pepperoni, and Green Peppers, Mushrooms, Olives, Chives"). Thier is also a very big difference in the music
in the acoustic pseudo-ballad "Roulette" and an interesting combination of strings and metal on "Streamline". For System fans they will be very pleased with how wierd Serj can get on this album as compared to "Toxicity", "IEAIOAIO"
is just as it sounds, it really has no lyrics as much as it does murmurs and garbled nonsense, "F*** The System" is basically lead singer Serj Tankian making noises and then leaving the lyrics to the chorus which "F*** The System, F*** The System".
With all the wierdness and noise that goes on on "Steal This Album" you would expect System to be taken as joke like the Bloodhound Gang. But thier strive against U.S. politics is something they take very seriously and can be seen
clearly on all of thier albums. They aren't trying to be the next Rage Against The Machine or Bob Dylan but they aren't trying to be a joke band either which it what makes them so interesting. Very few bands can make you laugh but also
make you think, System is definately one of those bands and on "Steal This Album" they prove it.
