System Of A Down Are “Testing The Waters” With Their Expanded 2025 Touring Plans

For much of their career, multi-platinum Armenian-American nü-metal pioneers System Of A Down have operated amid well-documented internal tensions. Now over 30 years into their journey, the band has spent the last decade primarily existing as a legacy act.

Aside from two charity singles released in 2020, System Of A Down hasn’t delivered a full release of new material since 2005. Longstanding creative and financial disputes within the group have kept them from returning to the studio. Their live performances have also been limited, partially due to vocalist Serj Tankian’s admitted disinterest in lengthy tours and past struggles with back issues that required surgery in 2021.

However, headlining both editions of the Sick New World festival seems to have reignited Tankian’s enthusiasm for performing. Following years of scattered festival appearances, System Of A Down surprised fans in December by announcing an ambitious 2025 tour across North and South America—their most extensive schedule since 2017.

In a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, bassist Shavo Odadjian shed light on the band’s expanded touring plans, describing them as a way to “test the waters” for their future. Addressing the overwhelming demand that saw their initial North American dates sell out almost immediately, Odadjian remarked:

“Literally within a few hours we sold out every show, and it was a shock to us. But I’m very glad that the stadiums were available near those dates. We had a band conference that it sold out. My manager hit us up. He’s, like, ‘Dude, you guys sold it all out.’ … It floored me. People are, like, ‘Why should it be so surprising to you?’ Everyone sees us a certain way. I still see us as that band from Hollywood. I’m not seeing us as this giant band that could sell out MetLife twice, two nights in a row. Football stadiums, bro. So, we decided, ‘Let’s add another show to each.’ And we put it out there the next day and those sold out too.”

When questioned about why the band is only visiting three North American cities, he replied:

“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.

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.”

He continued:

“Bad experiences have happened to certain people, and they kind of hold that as PTSD, I think. And now that things are better, we’re older, we’re, like, ‘Dude, no pressure, bro. Let’s just do it. If we like it, we do. If we don’t like it, we [don’t].’ ‘Cause you know what? Serj had a great time at Sick New World last year. We had such an amazing, fun show and everyone left the stage hugging.

And so he called back, he’s, like, ‘Dude, I loved it. Let’s do more of these.’ So that’s where that happened. We’re, like, ‘Let’s go.’ As long as everyone is down. Daron [Malakian, System Of A Down guitarist/vocalist] was down. 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.”

Responding to why the band chose just three Eastern cities for that leg of the tour, he explained:

“We haven’t been there for a long time. ‘Cause we’ve been doing West Coast stuff a lot, because we haven’t been leaving the West Coast. Like I said, we’ve been kind of dipping our toe in the water, testing the temperature of the water. So, we’ve been kind of upsetting the East Coast. It seems like we don’t like going there, but we love the East Coast. We love all over. We love the entire country.

It’s not personal at all. So when we decided to do some extra shows, we said, ‘We need to go to the East Coast. That’s where this year has to be.’ So that’s the reason — because we the East; we really do. We talk about it every day — John [Dolmayan, System Of A Down drummer] and I talk about it every day. We’re, like, ‘We can’t wait for this.’ So we’re looking forward to seeing the crowd, being there and seeing the city and enjoying it with that eye again. We’re playing the city again. And to play two stadiums in each city is just — it’s a gift.”

After being asked whether it’s difficult for the band to deliver stadium-level performances despite their limited time together in recent years, he replied:

“We can do it. Look, for the last few years, we’ve been doing one or two shows. And we go and we rehearse two weeks for one show. I think that’s not smart. So six shows is better than one show to me. I’ll take it. I’ll take it, and I’m not gonna ask for more. I want it to happen organically. I think our band is that band — we can’t be told what to do. The more we push each other to do something, the less we do. So I figure the less we push, the more we’ll do. It should be done because we wanna do it, we love to do it, and that’s why we do it.”

System Of A Down‘s 2025 tour dates so far are:

04/24 Bogota, COL – Estadio Nemesio Camacho El Campin
04/27 Lima, PER – Estadio Nacional
04/30 Santiago, CHL – Parque Estadio Nacional
05/03 Buenos Aires, ARG – Estadio Velez Sarsfield
05/06 Curitiba, BRA – Estadio Couto Pereira
05/08 Rio de Janeiro, BRA – Estadion Nilton Santos
05/10 Sao Paulo, BRA – Allianz Parque
05/11 Sao Paulo, BRA – Allianz Parque

With Korn, Polyphia & Wisp:
08/27 New York City, NY – Metlife Stadium
08/28 New York City, NY – Metlife Stadium

With Avenged Sevenfold, Polyphia & Wisp:
08/31 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field
09/01 Chicago, IL – Soldier Field

With Deftones, Polyphia & Wisp:
09/03 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium
09/05 Toronto, ON – Rogers Stadium

[via Blabbermouth.net]

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