System of a Down release 2 new songs, their first new music in 15 years

After well over a decade of speculation, System of a Down have announced their first new music in 15 years, with the release of two tracks, Protect the Land and Genocidal Humanoidz.

The songs were written and produced by guitarist/singer Daron Malakian, recorded in October, and released today in response to the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan.

Both tracks are available to buy at the band’s Bandcamp page, where all proceeds will go to the Armenia Fund.

On that page, the group released a joint statement regarding the new songs: “We as System Of A Down have just released new music for the first time in 15 years. The time to do this is now, as together, the four of us have something extremely important to say as a unified voice.

“These two songs, Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz both speak of a dire and serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia.

“We’re proud to share these songs with you and hope you enjoy listening to them. Further, we encourage you to read on to learn more about their origins and once you do, hope you are inspired to speak out about the horrific injustices and human rights violations occurring there now.

“Most importantly and urgently, we humbly implore you to donate, in sums small or large to help those adversely affected with what are ever growing accounts of crimes against humanity.”

System have pointed out that fans should not take this as a sign of a new album in the imminent future – although they’re ruling nothing out.

“If it was up to me, we’d have a new album every three years,” drummer John Dolmayan told Rolling Stone. “But things aren’t up to me. I’m at the mercy of my team, and although I fought for it for many years with band members, I’ve accepted that it is what it is.”

Daron Malakian, meanwhile, remains more optimistic.

“I never say never,” he says. “I didn’t expect this. I was ready to put out my next Scars [on Broadway] record. This kind of happened out of the blue, so who knows. If we don’t record again, then I’ll just keep doing what I do and everyone else will keep doing what they do. But it was nice to do this.”