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List Price: $9.99 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 3100
Released: May 17, 2005 |
| Our Price: $5.97 |
| Used Price: $2.74 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Mezmerize Track Listing:
1. Soldier Side - Intro
2. B.Y.O.B.
3. Revenga
4. Cigaro
5. Radio/Video
6. This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I’m On This Song
7. Violent Pornography
8. Question!
9. Sad Statue
10. Old School Hollywood
11. Lost in Hollywood
Editorial Review:
Four CD's and nearly ten years into their career, System of a Down continue to be the Gilbert and Sullivan of this generation, delivering razor-sharp political commentary via beautiful, quirky melodies and discordant harmonies.
The group has mastered the ability to be both successful and subversive--with 2001's Toxicity selling over six million copies and debuting at number one on the Billboard charts, their success in indisputable. As far are their subversive-ness, the lyrical content on Mezmerize is a solid stream of anti-war, anti-corporate and anti-celebrity sentiment. The disc's first single proves as beautifully schizophrenic as anything the band has released. "B.Y.O.B." opens with guitarist Daron Malakian's rapid-fire riff, then frontman Serj Tankian's anti-war screams of "Why do they always send the poor?"; less than a minute later, a nearly-surreal jump to a facetiously perky, beach party chorus that could easily be found on a Britney or Justin record: "Everybody's going to the party/have a real good time." Guitarist/co-songwriter Malakian takes increased vocal time on the disc, including the hilarious, size-obsessed "Cigaro" and celeb-slapping "Radio/Video". Witticism aside, musical and lyrical intensity peaks with the operatic "Question!" and the emotional piledriver that is "Sad Statue", the group¹s unflinching statement on war and Lady Liberty.
The only shortcoming of Mezmerize is, quite simply, that it is short. Clocking in at a mere 38 minutes, the reason given is that this release is one-half of a two CD set--with part 2, Hypnotize, expected in late fall 2005. --Denise Sheppard
Mezmerize Reviews:
Exploiting momentum 
2009-09-21 - 3 1/2
The System continued to improve its personally quirky assault of cynical metal but instead of combining two consecutive releases into what could have been their most concise, they harp on cultural criticism and churn speed metal predictably to the disadvantage of their special talents to make these familiar aggressive setups worthwhile.
Great Album 
2009-03-18 - Great album, somewhat on the short side though (clocks in at around 35 min), highly original, if not a bit strange, sounds like nothing else you've ever heard, but sounds great
it's pretty good. 
2008-08-24 - i originally bought the hypnotize album, but i ended up with this one in the hypnotize case.however this album is worth buying.the best songs are: revenga, b.y.o.b., question, sad statue, and lost in hollywood. it's probably just as good as hypnotize.
Too much filler...
2008-07-24 - If you are a fan of System of a Down, you know what kind of music they churn out. If not, they are often considered alternative. Today that word could mean anything. There is a mix of metal, screamo, and twisted lyrics that create their music. Most of the time, this works very well.
This CD features a lot of anti-war music. They do it in a way that's just not talking bad about the United States though, they do it through decent music. Not all the songs are anti-war though. So if you are looking for just some good music without the message, it has that as well.
The CD however featured far too many filler songs. Some songs like B.Y.O.B. and Sad Statue were great, while other songs just seemed like something they threw in to fill up space. I would suggest listening to Toxicity or Hypnotize if you want a more complete System of a Down experience.
Mezmerize
2008-05-09 - Wow, what an album. This is probebly my favorite one out of all SOAD's CD's for a couple reasons. First, the guitar really stands out, it seems the electric guitar is more involved in Mezmerize than in Hypnotize. This especially showed in B.Y.O.B. The songs also seem more unique next to each other in Mezmerize, compared to Hypnotize, which though is still a great album. My favorite songs are of course B.Y.O.B. and Cigaro. I can't get anough of Cigaro...its melody and vocals are so good I can't beleive it.
Mezmerize has a very strong tone and changes mood much more than in the bands' other Albums. Though it just has 11 songs, its all worth listening to.
Defenetly a great album. 5 stars!
