The guest of the last episode of The Disc Drive program, prepared by Knotfest host Ryan J. Downey, was System Of A Down vocalist Serj Tankian. Talking about a tour they went on with Slayer in 1998, Serj Tankian mentioned that the only band he was afraid of was Slayer and continued as follows:
”We were f*cking scared, bro, on stage. It was bootcamp, just surviving, learning how to work an audience. Cause Slayer audiences will hate everyone else, obviously. But that brings back a lot of memories, because it was our first tour as well. And Daron was all glammed out. I had, like, weird shit on my face. And they would look at us, like, Who the fuck are these fucking idiots? And we had to impress from, like, not just base zero point, but negative point. We had to get up there and score points. And that, my friend, was incredible bootcamp as touring artists, that really, really kind of made us. It molded us.”
Slayer Fans And System Of A Down
Apart from Serj Tankian, another member of System Of A down who spoke about the Slayer was drummer John Dolmayan. Speaking about the same tour on the Let There Be Talk podcast show three and a half years ago, Dolan focused on Slayer fans, saying:
“Our first tour was with Slayer, and after you play in front of a Slayer crowd, everything else is easy. And they were very accepting of us, very supportive, and the people were super nice to us, and they would actually listen.”
He then continued:
“Slayer audiences can be brutal. Tom Araya came up to us and said; Let me know if you have problems, and they would watch us every night, they were so good to us and supportive and nice people, and I miss them dearly.”
They Are So Hardcore
In 2020, System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian also stated on the podcast show Ya Neva Know that Slayer fans are so hardcore, saying:
“Slayer, if you’re opening for them, they don’t like you. It doesn’t matter who the f*ck you are because you ain’t Slayer. Slayer fans, they’re so hardcore. They’re, like, ‘I don’t give a fuck about this, System of a what?! What, they’re wearing makeup?! Because we used to do all sorts of theatrics… It comes from Kiss and all that stuff. Appreciating what Kiss did. I don’t like all their songs, but I dug what they did with their vision. So we’re playing songs like ‘Sugar’ with, like, eyeliner on and makeup on, and these guys are ready for ‘Raining Blood’, and they go, ‘F*ck these guys!’ And we get booed.”
Diabolus On Tour (1998)
In 1998, Slayer released their 8th studio album ‘Diabolus In Musica.’ Immediately after the album, he started performing under the name Diabolus On Tour, which lasted from 1998 to 1999. On this tour, the Slayer was accompanied by the bands System of a Down, Sepultura, Fear Factory, Kilgore, Clutch, Meshuggah. and Sick of It All. In 1998, a 3-song promotional ‘Musica Tour Sampler’ album was released. This album included ‘Stain of Mind’ from Slayer’s Diabolus In Musica album, ‘Suite-Pee’ from System Of A Down’s debut album of the same name, and ‘Ship of Gold’ from Clutch’s ‘The Elephant Riders’ album.
In Recent Years, System Of A Down
System Of A Down has only released 2 songs in the last 18 years. The proceeds of these songs, ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’, released in 2020, were donated to support the humanitarian relief efforts in System Of A Down’s homeland Armenia for those who lost their lives in the conflicts between Artsakh and Azerbaijan. With the support of fans, this donation amounted to $600,000.
