Can any band have a worse gig than opening for Slayer? Imagine standing before an adrenalized audience that seethes with an almost barbaric spirit-- they mosh to house music, randomly send out hellish chants, jump from balconies with such sacrificial glee that one is reminded of the opening scene from The Omen-- it's a scene to make even Dante shudder. To survive amidst these conditions is victory alone, but to actually triumph is something near magical.

Watching the masses sway to the tunings of System of a Down when they opened for Slayer was incontestable evidence to me that there was something special about this band. Listening to their self- titled debut cements the thought, and it's easy to understand why-- this is the most inventive crossover (do we dare call it metal?) recording since Rage Against the Machine's debut.

A harmonic greeting paves the way for the bottom- heavy attack of the album's first two tracks; so far, one senses a strong outfit in the vein of Korn, Sepultura, and the Deftones, but a substantially different sound has yet to arrive. Enter "Sugar" where the band manages to fuse a ton- of- bricks heaviness with a swing groove. Other creative twists and turns abound. The Kyuss- like dreariness of "Spiders" demonstrates the wide dynamic range of the band, a quality lost to most of their contemporaries. "Ddevil" gallops by with a groove somewhere between Adam Ant and Black Sabbath. "Mind" is the bastard child of Rage Against the Machine and Napalm Death. "Peephole" actually manages to incorporate a circus beat! This healthy sense of experimentation is closely reminiscent of Mr. Bungle, though System of a Down is less eccentric and, as a result, more accessible.

Vocalist Serj Tankian should be congratulated for not only following his band through their schizophrenic terrain, but actually improving upon it. He peppers the album with gurgling howls, bloodcurdling screams, witch- like cackles, and jazz cat sassiness, never once losing sight of the fact that he can actually sing, too.

The only real failing of the album lies with the lyrics. It's clear that the band is trying to be subversive, but the frequency of trite phrases such as "Don't ever get stuck in the sky, when you're high;" and their utter dependence upon the word "fuck" as a testament to their anger weaken the attempt.

Imagine the scene: It's 2002, System of a Down and Slayer are again playing on the same bill, but this time the audience is chanting for the former. Sure, it's unlikely, but for how many bands would it even be conceivable?

-Kevin Ruggeri