System of a Down got “booed off the stage” and had a bagel and coins thrown at them on their Slayer support tour.
Guitarist Daron Malakian has recalled the raucous reaction to their opening slots for the thrash metal legends and insisted they didn’t let it “faze” them.
He told Metal Hammer: “Our first tour in the US and our first tour in Europe were both opening for Slayer. Some people got it, some people didn’t. We would get booed off the stage in some of those countries.”
He continued: “The approach I took to those Slayer shows was that if they didn’t start chanting ‘Slayer!’ while we were playing, I would make them start chanting ‘Slayer!’ We just didn’t let that faze us. I remember we were in Poland and people didn’t get it at all.
They booed us off the stage, they threw things at us, they threw coins, they threw a bagel at Serj! But we just kept doing what we do and moving forward. Like, if I was a comedian, I find my jokes funny – if everyone else isn’t laughing, I don’t care.”
Malakian also recalled how they struggled to get signed at first because they weren’t nu-metal.
He said: “At first nobody wanted to sign us, because we didn’t sound like Korn or Limp Bizkit, and we were four Armenian guys! I mean, what the f*** is an Armenian to somebody that lives in Kentucky?! They don’t even know what Armenians are! And we looked like we were just f****** aliens to people, the way our stage presence was and the way our look was at the time. Serj [Tankian, SOAD singer] is a very different, unique kind of frontman, I’m the guitar player who sings and screams and does all the crazy stuff. People didn’t get it at first, but we got it.”
The Chop Suey! rockers refused to confirm and stuck to their guns.
Malakian said: “We just went out and did what we did. We were young and hungry, we believed in what we were doing. You’ve got to understand, we were an army before we were signed, we were f****** tearing down the Sunset Strip. Our shows were packed when we weren’t signed. It started with our group of friends, but that s*** grew and grew and grew, and we became the biggest band on the Sunset Strip.”
He insisted: “I don’t look at what other bands are doing and say, ‘Well, I’ve got to do that to fit in with those guys.’ But for some reason we fit into that whole [nu metal] thing. That’s just the time that we existed.”
System of a Down got lumped with the nu-metal tag and got on with it.
Malakian is a fan of some of the original nu-metal bands, but says there were a lot of bands imitating Metallica and Slayer.
He said: “I’ll say one thing about the original nu metal bands – Deftones, Korn, all the ones that were the first, and add us to that list – they were all doing something unique.
We were all the kids that grew up listening to Metallica and Slayer, all that f****** thrash stuff, but we weren’t copying it. We were taking that influence and we were bringing in other things, other influences, and creating something new with that heavy sound.
All those copy bands, I don’t give a s*** about any of them. The ones that came out and started their own thing and did their own thing, those bands deserve credit.”