Serj Tankian has opened up about the time System Of A Down were “pelted with coins” by fans who were “raising Nazi salutes”.
The incidents occurred when the ‘Chop Suey’ hitmakers went on tour with Slayer as opening support back in 1998. System Of A Down viewed the slot as a big opportunity since at the time, they had yet to release their debut LP.
Though they were championed by many heavy metal fans, Slayer’s fan base was not too keen on the group’s slot at the gigs. In his memoir Down With The System – which was released last year, Tankian reflected on the tour and shared (via Metal Hammer): “That tour was like going to rock ’n’ roll boot camp.
“Slayer fans famously love Slayer and hate just about everything and everyone else. As their opening act, the crowd saw us as the one thing standing between them and Slayer.”
He continued: “This was a group of fans for whom ‘homemade’ knife-carved tattoos were not unusual, so when we’d turn up – me in tribal makeup, Daron [Malakian, guitarist] sporting pink hair and a glammy little outfit, they were not necessarily predisposed to welcome us with open arms. In fact, when we’d take the stage, we’d often be facing a wall of crossed arms and extended middle fingers.”
The frontman shared that although they eventually began winning crowds over with their performances, he still remembered how a handful of Slayer fans in attendance weren’t for them and lashed out in terrible ways.
“A small subset of Slayer fans had a disturbing practice of showing up to gigs in full Nazi regalia,” he recalled. “I distinctly recall watching a team of African-American bouncers at a club in Detroit called Harpos brawling with these Slayer fans outside the club after we’d finished our set.”
System of a Down, pose for a group portrait circa September, 1998 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Bob Berg/Getty Images)
He continued: “Later that year, while we were touring with Slayer through Europe, we were onstage in Poland being pelted with coins by fans who were also raising Nazi salutes in our direction. At one point, I was hit in the face with a bagel and lost my shit.
“I told our lighting guy to point the lights into the audience and target the bagel-thrower. Then I launched into an angry tirade and threatened to start kicking people’s asses. When I finished, the venue went dead silent. You could literally hear a pin drop in that place. Then we walked off.”
Elsewhere, System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has shared that the band will be taking their upcoming North and South American tours as a way to “test the waters”.
Speaking to SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk (per The PRP), Odadjian shared that the tours will serve as a way for the band to see if they can return to a regular touring schedule: “We haven’t played a lot together for a while. We’ve been doing one or two shows a year since 2017. So, the relationships were not as great as they are now. It’s just everybody wasn’t on the same page.
“We’ve been talking. Everything’s great, knock on wood. Everyone’s happy. So we decided to test the waters and play some shows. And that’s what it is.”
He continued: “There is no strategy to it, there’s no plan to do the rest of the world just yet. I’m not saying it’s not gonna happen; I’m not saying it is gonna happen. We told each other, ‘Let’s play it by ear, do these shows, see how we feel afterwards. If we don’t wanna do any more, we don’t do any more. If we wanna do more, we’ll do more.’
“There’s no heavy responsibility on anyone, because I feel like a lot of it is just thinking too much, overthinking what could happen… So we decided, ‘Let’s test the waters. Let’s not just go full blast and start doing months. Let’s just test the waters with three shows.’ Those three shows turned to six.”
The bassist also clarified that nothing is set in stone in terms of System Of A Down releasing new music soon. “We always will talk about it here and there, but I don’t know if this will happen or not,” he said via Blabbermouth.
He continued: “I can’t promise. We haven’t said anything. Like I said, man, there is no pressure. We said, ‘Let’s get together. Let’s play these shows, see how it goes.’ We haven’t done this many shows… Literally, we’re doing more shows this year than we have the last seven years combined. So, let’s do that first and see where that takes us.”
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