System Of A Down has surprisingly released two new songs. The tracks are the first to be released by the band in 15 years.The songs are called “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz“. You can find the songs below. The band offered the following statement:
“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.
On September 27, the combined forces of Azerbaijan and Turkey (along with Isis terrorists from Syria) attacked the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which we as Armenians call Artsakh. For over the past month, civilians young and old have been awakened day and night by the frightful sights and sounds of rocket attacks, falling bombs, missiles, drones and terrorist attacks.
They’ve had to find sanctuary in makeshift shelters, trying to avoid the fallout of outlawed cluster bombs raining down on their streets and homes, hospitals and places of worship. Their attackers have set their forests and endangered wildlife ablaze using white phosphorus, another banned weapon.
And Why?
Because over 30 years ago in 1988, the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh (which at the time was an Autonomous Oblast within the USSR), were tired of being treated as second class citizens and decided to declare their rightful independence from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic whose borders engulfed their own.
This ultimately led to a war of self determination by Armenians in Karabakh against Azerbaijan that ended in a cease fire in 1994, with Armenians retaining control of their ancestral homelands and maintaining their independence to the present day. Our people have lived there for millennia, and for most families there, it’s the only home they and their forefathers and mothers have ever known. They just want to live in peace as they have for centuries.
There is an immediate need for global citizens to urge their respective governments to not only condemn the actions of the corrupt regime leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey, but to also insist world leaders act with urgency to bring peace to the region and rightfully recognize Artsakh as the independent nation it is.
Most importantly and urgently, we humbly implore you to donate, in sums small or large to provide desperately needed aid and basic supplies for those adversely affected with what are ever growing accounts of crimes against humanity.
We realize that for many of you, there are more convenient ways you like listening to music, so please consider the opportunity to download these songs as an act of charity above all else. The music and lyrics speak for themselves. We need you to speak for Artsakh.
Peace,
Daron, Shavo, John and Serj“
The band encouraged their fans to download and donate to their Bandcamp. In a newly published interview with Rollingstone.com, John Dolmayan, the band’s drummer, went into more detail on the ongoing war in Nagorno-Karabakh which allowed the band to look past each other’s differences. He said on October 04th of this year, he reached out to his bandmates stating:
“I sent a text to the other three guys, and said, ‘Irrespective of your feelings for each other and the past, we have to put everything aside and get in the studio and create a song for our people to bring attention to the situation and galvanize the forces of good worldwide. And I got pretty positive responses.”
Serj Tankian said of his contribution to the new songs:
“I’m not doing this as an artist for myself or for System Of A Down or for any of the guys in the band; we’re all doing this for our people. So this is not a creative decision, this is not a business decision. This is a decision of activism, and that takes precedence over all other things for us.”
Daron Malakian, the band’s guitarist/vocalist said:
“If we don’t do this, there isn’t any other huge Armenian rock band out there that’s gonna do this. There aren’t that many big Armenian celebrities out there that are going to do this. It’s kind of a duty. We came together because our country needed us, not necessarily because we’re so amped to do a brand-new System Of A Down song. Our people needed us to do this.”
You can find the full interview with the band and their efforts to raise awareness over at Rollingstone.com.
