Despite some of Daron Malakian's "far middle" tirades lately, he and the rest of System of a Down have always worn their activism on their sleeves. In an Instagram post, Malakian talked about the hidden track "Arto," which follows the closing song "Aerials" on the band's sophomore effort Toxicity:
There is a hidden track at the end of the Toxicity album that fans call “Arto.” However, the composition is actually a spiritual Armenian hymn called “Der Voghormia” (“Lord Have Mercy”).
The piece is often used to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, like in this video depicting priests performing Der Voghormia at the Genocide Memorial in Armenia, over a century later.
When we, as System Of A Down, perform the song live, we do it to remember the 1.5 million souls who lost their lives in 1915.
For those unaware, the Armenian genocide of 1915 saw the mass killing and starvation of Armenian people by the Ottoman Empire. Widely considered the first genocide carried out in the twentieth century, the Turkish government do not classify this as an act of genocide, but rather a necessary action. As of 2025, a total of 34 countries have recognized the Armenian genocide as legitimate, calling the events what they are.
Check out Malakian's video tribute from Yerevan, Armenia in the video below:
