Take System Of A Down, for instanse. Since forming in 1998, they have wisely looked beyond the trash-metal ghetto while still retaining their audience. As with Korn, Fear Factory and The Deftones, System Of A Down take full advantage of fearless eclecticism.
By now, metal bands co-opting Rottweiler rapping techniques is nothing new, but SOAD�s sure-footed approximations of jazz, tribal rhymes and Middle Easter melodicism would certainly confuse Fred Durst.
Similarly, that band�s anger-filled social commentary would perhaps be too taxing for Blink 182. Yet befitting such a clued-up bunch, SOAD aren�t ones to abandon their vituperative metal roots.
Second album Toxicity displays the kind of incendiary ferocity normally the preserve of �ber-thrash merchants, Slayer. Not for nothing did tat curator of bone-crunching hard rock, Rick Rubin, designate SOAD as inaugural signings for his American Recordings label.
Ironically enough, it�s precisely the band�s non-American background � vocalist Serj Tankian and drummer John Dolmayan are from Lebanon and bassist Shavo Odadjian hails from Armenia � that has fuelled diverse and distinct influences.
This makes SOAD highly intriguing, but in reality it�s the band�s neo-Gothic wrappings that have gripped alt.rock teens the world over. For if there�s one thing more universal than explosive guitar action, it�s the language of brooding angst.
Put the two together and you�ve got one of America�s biggest bands right now: Sussed, sharp but still unafraid of the moshpit.
Taken from the "Metro" on Tuesday 26th of March