Band:	System Of A Down
Album:	Steal This Album!
Style:	Alternative metal
Release date:	September 20, 2002
Guest review by:	king_matt

01. Chic 'N' Stu
02. Innervision
03. Bubbles
04. Boom!
05. Nüguns
06. A.D.D.
07. Mr. Jack
08. I.E.A.I.A.I.O.
09. 36
10. Pictures
11. Highway Song
12. Fuck The System
13. Ego Brain
14. Thetawaves
15. Roulette
16. Streamline

With the release of their first album, System Of A Down were something different. They were bizarre, they were original, and they were over the top in a good way. Toxicity took away most of the ridiculousness and they became pretty generic. Steal This Album! was a short return to their old selves before returning to their style on the previous release.

Steal This Album! is essentially nu-metal, but also contains elements of various genres all over the place such as grindcore and indie rock. There are some real standout tracks like "Chic 'N' Stu" and "Ego Brain", but, like most records, Steal This Album! has some fillers like "36" (this is where the grindcore element comes in) and "Roulette". The majority of the songs are extremely catchy and enjoyable to listen to. The main thing this album does better than the rest in their discography is balancing the number of heavy songs with the number of lighter ones. The lyrics range from political commentary to singing about eating pizza. There's nothing to complain about them, except maybe they're a bit repetitive, but that's System Of A Down's trademark.

As always, Serj does great on vocals with some Daron vocals thrown in as well, which were absent on the first album. He's not a bad singer, but on some of the tracks his screeching can become very obnoxious. I've got nothing to complain about the production; it's great like it usually is. Daron is a pretty decent guitarist, and does well on here. While the guitar part is very simplistic, it would have sounded very out of place if it was any more technical. The drumming fits in well with the music and isn't too distracting like a lot of nu-metal drumming is. Like Daron, John doesn't do many complex rhythms here, and that works just fine for me. The bass playing is excellent and does great accompaniment on a majority of the tracks, so I give Shavo props on that.

So if you are looking for something exciting and new, listen to System Of A Down first. If you really enjoyed it, this is the next best place to go. It's pretty similar in some aspects, but adds more variation while being a bit more simplistic songwriting-wise.