“Chop Suey” by System of a Down

"Chop Suey" was System of a Down's calling card, the first single from Toxicity, their second album, in 2001, and it's often counted as the band's signature song. Daron Malakian wrote the music and the lyrics with Serj Tankian, and he produced it with Rick Rubin, with Tankian co-producing. Andy Wallace mixed it and David Schiffman engineered.

It's a whiplash of a song: machine-gun verses, a manic, tumbling rush of riffs from Malakian, then a sudden swoop into a mournful, almost operatic chorus that feels like it wandered in from another century. Tankian and Malakian trade vocals, from yelp to croon to bark, Tankian adds keyboards, Shavo Odadjian plays bass and chips in extra vocals, and John Dolmayan's drums rattle like a runaway freight car. It's absurd and anguished in the same breath.

It earned the band their first Grammy nomination, for Best Metal Performance, in 2002. Its video has since passed a billion views on YouTube, and it became their first song certified Diamond by the RIAA.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.