"I keep thinking about what happens to creative communities during authoritarian times." System Of A Down's Serj Tankian appears on chilling cover of David Bowie's I'm Afraid Of Americans
I'm Afraid Of Americans appears on an upcoming album by composer Brendan Angelides
Serj Tankian, frontman of nu-metal icons System Of A Down, features on a newly released cover of David Bowie's paranoid classic I'm Afraid Of Americans.
The new version of Bowie's 1997 song appears on Can You Feel the End Begin?, the upcoming album by composer Brendan Angelides, who is most famous for his work on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why and Showtime's Billions, as well as the game Assassin's Creed Mirage.
"I always loved Trent Reznor's remix of Bowie's original," says Angelides. "I've been working on a new album for the past year, and as this particular beat came together, I unexpectedly started singing those words on top.
"The first person I thought to collab with was Serj. He has been an inspiration to me forever and I'm now lucky to call him a friend. The video is built from our childhood photos. We filmed ourselves to drive the motion capture, then face-tracked, composited, and had a mosh party."
"I keep thinking about what happens to creative communities during authoritarian times," he adds. "It's half of what this upcoming album is about."
Can You Feel the End Begin? will be released on August 14 via Angelides's Ancestor label.
This is the second time Tankian has guested on someone else's music this year – in May he featured on Tom Morello's Adjourn It single, which appears on the Rage Against The Machine man's upcoming album Everyone Gets Everything They Want.
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System Of A Down, who headlined a pair of stadium shows in London earlier this month, have recently announced a run of dates in Australia and New Zealand, with Faith No More – who haven't played live in a decade – as support. Full schedule below.
System Of A Down live dates
Oct 24: Fort Worth Sick New World Festival, TX
Jan 22: Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, Australia*
Jan 27: Marvel Stadium, Melbourne, Australia*
Feb 01: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia*
Feb 07: Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand*
*=with Faith No More

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. He once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, has flown on the Goodyear Blimp, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
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