Toxicity cover

Toxicity

Released

Released a week before the world changed, System of a Down’s second screed took a snapshot of American exceptionalism at the turn of the millennium: the prison-industrial complex, drug addiction, hidden CIA-funded wars. It sounded like nothing else at the time — or even now. Nominally nu-metal but more of a hypercharged distillation of Mr. Bungle’s bizarro-thrash, Serj Tankian’s schizophrenic screeching and Daron Malakian’s playful mind-bending prog shred immediately set them apart from the Limp Bizkits of the world. The dazzling “Chop Suey” and “Aerials” come very close to absolving KoRn’s sins and making baggy-pants metal worth it.

Jeff Treppel

Recommended by

Suggestions
Throat cover

Throat

Little Women
True Opera cover

True Opera

Moor Jewelry
Dark Star Safari cover

Dark Star Safari

Eivind Aarset, Samuel Rohrer, Dark Star Safari, Erik Honoré, Jan Bang
Rain Dogs cover

Rain Dogs

Tom Waits
Blu Blu Blu cover

Blu Blu Blu

Muhal Richard Abrams
Empath cover

Empath

Devin Townsend