Blame the Bizkit. Who knows what nu-metal would have became without them. It's not that they were bad (at least to us) it's simply that they so fully dominated the idea of 'nu metal' that every single band in and around that scene felt they had to seperate themselves from the genre in order to fully communicate that they were not that. But like quicksand the more you struggle the deeper you sink.
So here's Daron Malakian claiming System of a Down were always 'doing their own thing.'
Speaking to Metal Hammer:
“We were lucky that there was a scene [...] But I don’t think anybody sounds like we did. I don’t think we felt like we didn’t belong and I don’t feel like we did belong."
“There’s so many fucking genres and then there are subgenres of the subgenre, it just gets lost. System Of A Down and Scars, that’s what I do. 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.”
Guys, come on. There's only so many Ozzfests you can tour or Wu Tang Clan covers you'd probably rather not talk about before you gotta just throw up your hands and admit the truth. Not only are System of a Down nu metal, they wouldn't exist without it. It's not just a matter of there being a scene but a scene in which a band can sing about pizza pies and prison systems and be massively successful in the process. Nu metal was the only place silliness like theirs could be rewarded so handsomely, there is simply no other place to put it.
But you know what, you know what, fine. I have accepted or am at least moving towards acceptance that we're never going to get our due and when I am eventually allowed to direct the nu metal documentary I'm just going to have to settle for interviewing System of a Down's roadies and blunt rollers instead of the actual band members.
At least Limp Bizkit got over it eventually.
Edit:
Okay, so I should really, really, finish reading interviews before I go sprinting off to write about them. I'm actually embarrassed enough about this that I'll append it as an edit instead of updating the original piece so that I fully learn my lesson.
“’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 fucking 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 shit about any of them. The ones that came out and started their own thing and did their own thing, those bands deserve credit.
System of a Down, nu metal confirmed? Sorry Daron.
