New System of a Down release due for the holidays
"Steal This Album,” a collection of previously unreleased tracks from System of a Down, is scheduled to hit stores in time for the holiday season, according to the band’s publicist.
"Steal This Album,” a collection of previously unreleased tracks from System of a Down, is scheduled to hit stores in time for the holiday season, according to the band’s publicist.
The album will feature from 12 to 17 tracks. Some of the album’s songs have roots that date to before the group signed its 1995 contract with American Recordings, and the most recent were recorded during sessions for the band’s 2001 release “Toxicity.”
The album was produced by Rick Rubin with System’s guitarist Daron Malakian, and is being mixed in Los Angeles by Andy Wallace (who mixed the band’s 2001 release, “Toxicity").
“We don’t consider any of these songs B-sides or outtakes,” System vocalist Serj Tankian said in a statement. “The songs that didn’t make it onto ‘Toxicity’ are as good as, if not better than the songs that did--they weren’t originally included because they didn’t fit the overall continuity of the album, and we’re happy that our fans will be able to hear them in their completed form.”
Neither the album’s final track listing nor its exact release date has been determined.
“This record is like a bridge between ‘Toxicity’ and our next studio record,” Malakian said. “It may give our fans a clue at the direction we’re headed in musically.”
The album’s packaging will resemble a homemade CD: a clear jewel case with “no cover art, no booklet and no standard J-card,” according to a statement issued by the band’s publicist. “The title will be scrawled across the face of the CD, and complete credits and other information can be accessed by inserting the CD into a computer and logging onto a special Internet site.”
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