Serj Tankian - Elect the Dead♦
Monday, December 3, 2007
Grade: B+
Lead singer for System of a Down, Serj Tankian, has completed and released his first solo project; Elect the Dead. He has made a transition from front man and singer to almost a one man show. On this debut solo album you can tell how far Serj has progressed as a musician and an artist. Playing most of the tracks on this album himself you get to see every side of this artists skills and talents across the board. There were however guest appearances on the album by System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan, drummer Bryan Mantia made some appearances, Dan Monti also helped out with some guitar and bass tracks, and opera singer Ani Maldjian also helped with some of the backup vocals for Serj which can be a very difficult task with his angelic melodies and harsh screams.
You can sense that the ideas and style of System of a Down still reside inside Serj from the beginning of the album. Now he has mixed his own creative style into the already existing energy and power and produced a very solid album. Serj can take a song from one end of the sound spectrum to the other so quickly and powerfully that it makes the listener ask themselves if this is still the same song with the same objective. We also get to see a softer side of Serj's music on this album as with "Feed Us" and "Saving Us" both involving acoustic guitar and piano, also accompanied by a slower beat than with the start of the album which comes right at you with "Empty Walls" and "The Unthinking Majority". The songs might start slow and soft but by the middle to end of the song the listener will find themselves jamming hard to the chorus's that tend to grow more intense throughout the songs. As with most of Serj's previous work, the tracks range from the shortest, "Elect the Dead", at 2:55 to the longest, "Saving Us", at 4:41. Even with the shorter songs Serj is still able to take the listener on an audible roller coaster of ups and downs from beginning to end. Overall this album is a bit more laid back than we are used to hearing from Serj, but that does not mean it is any less of quality.
This album definitely holds a stand against the political world that we live in, as does most of the music Serj has been a part of. With System of a Down there are songs that are obviously of political nature, the same can be said for the album Elect the Dead. Even in the title of the album the listener can tell that there is some stance being taken against our current government and situation in the world. This can also be seen through the video for the song "Empty Walls".
"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" is a classic example of the things that Serj Tankian is able to achieve with his voice. The weird chanting and sounds in the background is what makes Serj Tankian stand out in the crowd of ever striving vocalist. What sets him apart is that he is not afraid to use his voice in ways that other vocalists have not tried or experimented with, but his artistic ability is so great that he can almost do no wrong vocally. His lyrics as stated before hold a certain political stance so this might drive some listeners away from certain songs that scream political disagreement, but every song does not hold this stance.
Overall this album lives up to the standard that Serj Tankian has seemed to set for himself with every other album. The listener gets a mix of both hard rocking and anger in Serj's voice all the way across the board to soft melodic singing and backups while playing a piano. The album comes at you hard and fast with the first two tracks and progressively gets softer and more laid back. Heavier and angrier songs at the end would leave a profound impact on the listener with the last tracks but this album is still a good listen for anyone that enjoys the work of Serj Tankian.
Steven Mosley
Labels: AlbumReviews
posted by oriax @ 7:29 AM,
