What are System Of A Down up to?

By Luke Morton
( Metal Hammer )
published

System Of A Down are teasing something on their social media accounts... but what?!

System Of A Down teaser

Over the past three days, System Of A Down have been teasing their fans with images of a beach on Facebook and Twitter.

Starting on Friday evening, and following up over the weekend, the band have been counting down and updating an of a couple frolicking on the beach, adding in warplanes, mines, and mushroom clouds.

Additional hashtags have also been included with each tweet. Friday was simply #systemofadown, then came #soad2018 and finally #letsdothis. 

So what is going on? At first glance, this looks like it could be an album cover – the juxtaposition between nuclear war and a summer holiday feels very SOAD – but surely this isn’t the way one of the biggest metal bands on the planet will announce their first album in 13 years? 

Then again, it’s exactly the sort of thing System would do.

Alternatively, and much more likely, it could be a big summer show or tour. We know they’re playing together again at festivals – they headlined Download last year – and one clever sleuth on Facebook by the name of Aaron Conley commented that the countdown on Twitter ends the same day that Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, California is due to announce its lineup. 

So is this just a clever way of SOAD announcing a big-ass headline show in their home state? Or maybe it’s just an elaborate way of Daron and Serj announcing they're going on a summer holiday? We’ll hopefully find out tonight!

Luke Morton

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.