Perhaps the most controversial song on the album was the Daron-penned ATWA, as it was inspired by infamous cult leader Charles Manson. “It’s like a lot of Neil Young songs, where the lyrics don’t necessarily make sense, but they give you this feeling of something going on.” “I don’t know what it means, but I know how it makes me feel,” said producer Rick Rubin of the title-track. Not that it was always entirely clear what frontman Serj Tankian was warbling about at any given time. Partly inspired by their love/hate relationship with LA, the album also dealt with issues such as addiction ( Chop Suey!), mass incarceration ( Prison Song) and, uh, group sex ( Bounce). They certainly had their cartoonish side, but in other respects Toxicity was a far more serious proposition. He wasn’t really talking about the themes of the music, but about the funny sound effects: ‘Bik-ting-tah!’…” A friend of mine was listening to our new music the other day, and he said it reminded him of a Warner Bros. “There’s a circus-like vibe to this band. “Sometimes ‘quacky’ might be a guitar, sometimes it’s Serj’s vocals,” guitarist Daron Malakian explained as Kerrang! joined the band for the mixing of Toxicity at Enterprise Studios in Burbank. Something poetic and fiercely intelligent. Some cast SOAD as a new Rage Against The Machine due to their fiery political elements, more lumped them in with the nu-metal set, but there was always something different about System Of A Down. When they released their self-titled debut three years previously, the world didn’t quite know what to make of them.