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screenshot of "Chop Suey!" by @4KConcertVideos
No matter how long I’ve known it to be true, it never ceases to amaze me that a band as deeply strange and abrasive as System Of A Down ever infiltrated the mainstream as much as they did in the early 2000s. Culturally, “Chop Suey!” is closer to “Mr. Brightside” than it is to most metal songs, and that is still a wild concept to digest. Similarly, it shouldn’t surprise me that System Of A Down have only increased in popularity throughout the past 20 years despite only releasing two songs in that time span (or perhaps it’s partially because of that, since their discography has never been diluted with duds). But here they were, back in the NYC-area for the first time in over a decade, playing back-to-back sold-out nights in the area’s largest venue, MetLife Stadium, a venue that holds exponentially more people than the one SOAD last played here (Jones Beach in 2012 with Deftones as part of SOAD’s first tour since returning from hiatus), and it all felt just a little bit unbelievable. Here were tens of thousands of people singing along not just to hits like “Chop Suey!,” “Toxicity,” “Aerials,” and “B.Y.O.B.” but also to even stranger songs like “Suite-Pee,” “Psycho,” and “Bounce” in the same venue that I saw the Beyoncé tour and the Kendrick Lamar & SZA tour this year. What a glorious thing to witness.
I went on night two (Thursday, August 28), which had a similar setlist to night one but changed things up just enough that going both nights would be worth your while. They played almost all of their magnum opus Toxicity, along with plenty of favorites from their other four albums. Neither of the two newer songs (that were released in 2020) were played, but they did once again play their cover of Black Sabbath‘s “Snowblind” (which they recorded for the soundtrack of The Osbournes) after breaking it out for the first time in 23 years at night one. Guitarist Daron Malakian once again introduced the track with a tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, and he gave a different speech this time.
“There is nobody that I looked up to as a child more than I looked up to Ozzy Osbourne,” he told the crowd. “When I was like six and seven years old, I used to have dreams that Ozzy Osbourne was having dinner with me and my parents. And then somewhere down the line, we got the opportunity to play the Ozzfest. If you were here last night, I told you that there is no tour that helped System Of A Down get to where we are today more than the Ozzfest… He was not only the prince of darkness, but he was the king of heavy metal.”
The “Snowblind” cover was a real treat to see, and System Of A Down played it with the same towering urgency that they had for all the classic songs they did write. You couldn’t argue with the setlist, and you definitely couldn’t argue with System’s performance. With very little frills beyond a cool light show and some on-screen text/visuals, Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavo Odadjian, and John Dolmayan put on as good a stadium rock show as you could ever ask for. They remain a top tier live band that never rests on the laurels of the nostalgia their music induces. Yes, the songs have lived in our brains for 20+ years, but the shows they put on are so present and in the moment. It makes sense why they keep growing in popularity. They’re one of heavy music’s most unique treasures, and more and more people keep noticing it, including new generations of music fans who weren’t even born yet when System Of A Down released their first album.
The MetLife Stadium shows had direct support from nu metal pioneers Korn, whose Jonathan Davis also made a comment on stage about going from the 200-person clubs they played in their early days to playing to a packed stadium 31 years later. SOAD were the headliners, but judging by the amount of Korn shirts in the crowd and the volume of Korn singalongs, I would guess that a majority of the crowd was there for both bands, so this was a massive moment for Korn too. (I was actually still in the concession stands when Korn opened their set with “Blind,” and so many people made mad dashes to their seats while rocking out to the song that I thought I might get knocked over before I even fully got to the show.) They’re also a key factor of the era when the radio and MTV gave weird, heavy rock bands a chance, and they also remain a towering, undeniable live band. They’ve stayed a lot more prolific over the years than SOAD have but they also played just one song from the past 20 years of their career on Thursday night and otherwise kept things to the classic era. No complaints, and all those old songs still sound rebellious today.
I would’ve loved to get to the show on time to see the opening set from rising shoegaze act Wisp but getting to East Rutherford, NJ by 5:30 PM on a weekday just wasn’t in the cards for me. In between Wisp and Korn, the early arrivers were treated to Polyphia.
The MetLife Stadium shows began a run that finds System Of A Down doing two-night stands in three different cities. Next up is Chicago with Avenged Sevenfold and Toronto with the aforementioned Deftones (who hopefully will play new songs because their new album Private Music is incredible). Wisp and Polyphia open all four of those shows as well.
Check out SOAD and Korn’s setlists and some fan-shot videos of night two below…
System Of A Down @ MetLife Stadium – 8/28/25 Setlist (via)
X
Suite-Pee
Prison Song
Violent Pornography
Soldier Side – Intro
B.Y.O.B.
Science
Needles
Deer Dance
Radio/Video
Dreaming (breakdown only)
Hypnotize
ATWA
Bounce
Suggestions
Psycho (With “Let The Music Play” by Shannon intro)
Chop Suey!
Lonely Day (With ‘Careless Whisper’ Intro)
Lost in Hollywood (With ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ by The Who Tease)
Snowblind (Black Sabbath cover)
Aerials
Cigaro
Forest
Roulette
Toxicity
Sugar
—
Korn @ MetLife Stadium – 8/28/25 Setlist (via)
Blind
Twist
Here to Stay
Got the Life
Clown
Did My Time
Porno Creep
Shoots and Ladders (Metallica’s “One” outro)
Cold
Twisted Transistor
Dirty
Somebody Someone
A.D.I.D.A.S.
Y’All Want a Single
4 U
Falling Away From Me
Freak on a Leash
English (US) · 