Album review : Mezmerize - System Of A Down***** The world has gone slightly odd, I walk into the kitchen to find two teenage girls singing "My cock is much bigger than your cock", hmmm, part one of the new S.O.A.D. album has already made it's mark. Mezmerize is to be followed later this year by Hypnotize, "The decision to release the two discs six months apart was made simply to give fans time to get into and really live with the music from Disc One before plunging into Disc Two" it says on the band's website. That's ok then, because I was obviously wrong in thinking that it was to make twice as much money from the fans, it's been four years since the last proper album so S.O.A.D. are probably getting a bit short of cash. Let's hope that Hypnotize isn't the farce that 'Steal This Album' turned out to be. Onto the music then, bloody hell it's heavy. Most of the album tears along at a relentless and brutal pace, it is far, far heavier than any of their previous offerings. The breakneck speed reminds of hardcore and Napalm Death in places, honestly, it's that fast. The album opens with the single B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Bombs), an epic slab of staccato riffing and spitting lyrics on an anti-war theme, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian screaming "Why don't presidents fight the war, why do we always send the poor". The video for the song further expands the bands feelings on society and our willingness to do nothing about the world's ills so long as we are alright. Further into the album, the pace hardly slackens but the lyrics become harder and harder to comprehend, listening to most of the album is akin to playing The Mars Volta at double speed whilst someone uses a road drill outside your window. 'Revenga' and 'Cigaro' plough on relentlessly, pounding their super fast catchy little rythyms right into your brain. There is the faintest slowing of pace on 'Radio/Video' a stab at celebrity obsessive culture but then 'This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song' arrives in an unholy infusion of Frank Zappa meets speed metal. 'Violent Pornography' makes some valid points about, well, violent pornography, but there's more hypocrisy here, you can't pretend to be anti-porn when drummer John Dolmayan has created what he terms, 'the vagina drum kit.' Yes, it's a drum kit covered with, well, you get the idea. 'VP' is fantastic though. It takes all the furious pace of 'Bounce' and then adds a strangely compelling Spice Girls chant with "Everybody, everybody, everybody fucks." Weird, but good weird. 'Sad Statue' is another, more direct, anti-war and also anti-apathy polemic. The album closes with two slower numbers, 'Old School Hollywood/Lost In Hollywood'. This is a stunning album, S.O.A.D. have become faster and tighter as a band. One of my girls asked me what sort of music this is, who can say ? S.O.A.D. have carved a niche all for themselves, they have elements of Rage Against The Machine and speed metal but it's really all their own thing. Mezmerize is a more experimental album than Toxicity, many of the more obviously heavy metal parts of their music have been shed in favour of a surge of speed and lyrics spat out impossibly fast. Part one of the twin album project is a hit then, but should we follow the band's own advice and take the title of their third album as gospel when it comes to Hypnotize, will part two be a proper album or just another collection of unfinished tracks deemed not good enough for a first album release ?