Clips of raucous crowds at System Of A Down‘s recent France dates have gone viral – check out clips below.
The first show of the band’s European leg took place in Sweden late last month, ahead of Thursday’s (July 2) date at the Stade De France in Paris. Following the gig, the venue itself took to social media to say the endless sea of circle pits “shook the walls” while they played.
Several clips from the gig see the band performing to a sea of fans as countless circle pits form. They were similar scenes to last year’s concert at the Autódromo de Interlagos in São Paulo, which were so thunderous, Daron Malakian wrote on social media: “This is not a war zone, this is not a riot, this is a System Of A Down style Rock & Roll concert in Brazil!”
Local outlet Sortira Paris wrote that as well as moshing, some fans at the French gig took to waving Armenian flags in a nod to frontman Serj Tankian, who is of Armenian descent.
Tankian and the band have regularly shed light on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1916, and even thanked former President Joe Biden for officially recognising the genocide in 2021 – and he recently hit out at the Israeli government and accused them of “using” Armenian history and their “genocide and pain” to their “political advantage”.
The French date comes ahead of the metal legends playing in Italy and Germany this month, as well as two nights at Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London. These are their first headline tour dates in Europe since 2017, and when they head to the UK it will mark their first live shows in London in over a decade.
Ahead of thire show in Sweden, System Of A Down confirmed that they would be launching pop-up shops with exclusive merch and limited edition pressings of their seminal album, ‘Toxicity’ to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Before then, frontman Tankian said he and his bandmates are currently “having the best time of [their] lives as a band” after playing across North America.
The metal icons dropped their first new music in 15 years back in 2020 – singles ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ – after going on hiatus from 2006 to 2010. However, they are yet to record a full-length follow-up to their 2005 albums ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
Last summer, guitarist Daron Malakian spoke to NME about the chances of more new music from the group, and said that it was the “album shit that drives wedges between” the members.
Tankian has discussed the possibility of a new SOAD record too, and although he said in 2024 that he sees it as a good way to get a “fresh start”, he later revealed that he had been put off recording after becoming “very passive” while working on ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’. He later doubled down on the stance, dismissing rumours that System would be teasing a new album with their tour dates, saying: “There is no album that is written.”
Joining System Of A Down at all upcoming shows are Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath, with the latter having reformed in 2025 after a 17 year hiatus. Visit here for any remaining tickets.
At the show in Stockholm, Queens Of The Stone Age used the support slot to dust off some deep cuts from their 2007 album ‘Era Vulgaris’.
In their 12-song set, Josh Homme and co. began things with the first live performance of ‘Run, Pig, Run’ since 2008, and then broke out ‘The Fun Machine Took A Shit And Died’ for the first time in 12 years.
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