System Of A Down are marking 25 years of ‘Toxicity’ with new CD and vinyl anniversary editions, arriving just months before the band finally return to Australia for a massive stadium run.
Originally released in 2001, Toxicity remains the record that pushed System Of A Down from cult heavyweights into something far bigger.
Now, 25 years on, the band are revisiting the album with a stack of physical anniversary editions set for release on Friday, November 20th.
The CD version will feature new cover art and an updated 24 page booklet created specifically for the anniversary, while the standard black vinyl edition will include a 7-inch single of ‘Johnny’.
There will also be multiple coloured vinyl variants available through different retailers.
‘Toxicity’ Still Hits Just As Hard
Few albums from that era managed to sound as strange, confrontational and immediately memorable as Toxicity.
‘Chop Suey!’, ‘Aerials’ and the title track remain some of the band’s biggest songs, while the record’s collision of jagged metal, punk urgency, Armenian influence and surreal songwriting still feels unmistakably theirs.
System Of A Down ‘Chop Suey!’ video
The anniversary edition also brings renewed attention to the album’s closing piece, long misidentified by some listeners as ‘Arto’, the band explain:
‘To our listeners, this has previously been known as the hidden track at the end of toxicity that some mistakenly call ‘Arto’. However, this composition is actually a spiritual Armenian hymn called “Der Voghormia’, which translates to “lord have mercy.” The piece is often used to commemorate the Armenian genocide, but it’s also ritualistically performed during times of grief and remembrance. 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”.’
‘Toxicity’ 25th Anniversary Tracklist
- ‘Prison Song’
- ‘Needles’
- ‘Deer Dance’
- ‘Jet Pilot’
- ‘X’
- ‘Chop Suey!’
- ‘Bounce’
- ‘Forest’
- ‘ATWA’
- ‘Science’
- ‘Shimmy’
- ‘Toxicity’
- ‘Psycho’
- ‘Aerials’
- ‘Der Voghormia’
System Of A Down Australian Stadium Tour 2027
The anniversary arrives shortly before System Of A Down return to Australia for the first time in nearly 15 years, with Faith No More joining all three stadium shows.
- Friday, January 22nd – Sydney, Accor Stadium
- Wednesday, January 27th – Melbourne, Marvel Stadium
- Monday, February 1st – Brisbane, Suncorp Stadium
Find out more and pick up your tickets here.
The run marks System Of A Down’s first Australian headline tour in more than a decade and puts one of their defining records back under the spotlight right before local audiences finally get them back onstage.
The 25th anniversary editions of Toxicity are released Friday, November 20th.
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