"Albania?" "No, Armenia".
"The Kardashians?" "Yes , but so much more".
The above is the kind of conversation almost every Armenian in the UK will have endured. The truth of the matter is most British people don't know and don't care about Armenia or Armenians. This has never been more obvious than in November 2020 when, as a vicious and one-sided war rages in the territory of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabagh) that is currently under the protection of Armenia and under attack from Azerbaijan, I have just got off the phone to my 88 year old Aunt who had begun the conversation with "I phoned to ask about Armenia. Has it all died down now? I haven't seen anything in the papers".
The truth is that it has far from died down. Instead we watch on from these Isles as British companies such as BP and Anglo-Asian Mining PLC menacingly hover over the disputed enclave, hoping to pick clean the bones of dead teenage Armenian soldiers in the search for copper, gold and oil. The British Government is aiding them in their quest, blocking a proposal put to the UN Security Council that calls for a ceasefire, prevents third Party involvement and denounces the presence of Syrian (most likely ISIS) mercenaries in the region. That's right, the British Government is tacitly supporting the involvement of ISIS in Artsakh.
If that wasn't bad enough, the British media has been largely silent on an issue that has the potential to explode way beyond the borders of both the protecting and invading armies. The BBC has shamefully pursued a policy of both-siderism, something Armenians are quite used to having seen the same mechanism of denial being utilised to downplay the Armenian genocide by current Azeri sponsor Turkey in 1915. The rest of the media, aside from the odd human story article has been complicit in their silence. Meanwhile the casualties mount up as Armenia and Artsakh try to battle overwhelming odds and subdue the collective might of Turkey, Azerbaijan and various mercenaries including those from the aforementioned ISIS, that threaten to annihilate them.
It was therefore with impeccable timing that System Of A Down rode into view following a fifteen year journey of relative quiet. Their sole aim was to grab the world by the lapels and vigorously shake it into recognising the importance and severity of the war in Artsakh.
Anyone who has seen Serj Tankian's media appearances over the last month or so will have witnessed his tangible frustration at the world's apathy towards the violence being visited upon his home nation, a frustration he had no need to enunciate because it was exhibited through his every pore. He must have known that the behemoth that is System Of A Down could play a role in bringing into sharp focus the frightening events of the past month, and so it was that the band buried their differences for a cause that has united them since their inception, releasing their first recorded output for fifteen years.
A juggernaut of a riff and a pumped up drum crescendo introduce the wry philosophical observation of the opening lyric to Protect The Land - "The big gun tells you what your life is worth..."
It is immediately apparent that the subject of the song carries a massive weight and this is further embellished in the direct address that asks the listener if they would be quite as brave and prepared to stick around and fight if their country was under the same existential threat that faces Artsakh and Armenia currently. The bludgeoning assault continues to march towards the instantly memorable refrain of "They Protect The Land", a reference to the barely out of school defenders of Artsakh. The band then take a step back and get out of the listener's face to deliver a subtle reminder of the Armenian genocide of 1915 that occurred in the Syrian desert when "Some were forced to foreign lands, Some would lay dead on the sand" before once more questioning the moral fortitude of those listening.
Protect The Land reaches a climatic cataclysm of cascading drum patterns with Tankian's mournful lament drifting sadly over the sounds of war being battered out by John Dolmayan. Daron Malakian and Shavo Odajian's lead and bass escort us to the exit, leaving the listener to ruminate on this breath-taking artistic statement about real events currently stealing lives in the Caucasus.
B Side Genocidal Humanoidz is equally evocative and effective and is a quite astonishing frenzied battering ram of a song, where in the face of extinction the devil is confronted head on. References to terrorists point to the mercenaries currently in Artsakh whilst "The prostitutes who prosecute have failed us from the start..." could equally refer to the response of the world powers and League of Nations towards Armenia following the first modern genocide, or the U.N.'s seemingly ineffectual response to the war crimes (beheadings, executions) currently being visited upon Armenians in the region, all with Britain's tacit approval lest we forget. Malakian's voice begins the song before Tankian joins and then takes over in his customary visceral roar making for a spectacular and breathless assault. Odajian and Dolmayan imitate the thrum and clang of the loading of military hardware in a furious instrumental break. We are told the Genocidal Humanoidz are coming over for dinner "Teaching warfare to their children", a preoccupation of Serj's in recent interviews when he has pointed out that the grandchildren of genocide perpetrators are killing the grandchildren of genocide survivors.
Both Protect The Land and Genocidal Humanoidz serve their purpose, and how. It is a spectacular return from a band who sound tight and taught and on top of their game, which is remarkable after a fifteen year break.
System OF A Down have served their purpose too. They reformed in a bid to draw attention to events in Artsakh and they have achieved that in a quite dizzying manner, because within 48 hours both songs have had a combined 7 million views on YouTube alone. The last time music was this vital, this relevant and this important was Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas.
Armin T Wegner was a German Red Cross Officer during World War One. He documented the Armenian genocide through photographs that he smuggled out of Turkey at the risk of facing the death penalty. In 1933, as a citizen of Germany he wrote a letter to Hitler warning him of the dangers of persecuting the Jews (he was later imprisoned for doing so), and would tell other citizens that what was happening to German Jews reminded him of the Armenian genocide. He was most often told "But the Near East is so far away..."
System Of A Down have just brought it so much closer: let's hope further escalation of the war doesn't.
All proceeds from the Artsakh collection merchandise goes to the Armenia Fund
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