Are System Of A Down teasing their first European tour since 2017?

System Of A Down seem to be teasing their first European tour in eight years.

On Monday night (September 8), the band’s logo was seen being projected onto multiple buildings across London. Meanwhile, fans on the Armenian-American four-piece’s subreddit are claiming that they’ve seen similar teasers in Italy and Germany, potentially pointing to a leg of shows.

The last time System performed in Europe was in 2017. They played a 20-show tour across the continent during the summer, which included a headline slot at the UK’s Download festival. There they topped the card on the Friday, with Biffy Clyro capping off the Saturday and Aerosmith wrapping up the Sunday.

Before that, System played three European shows in April 2015, kicked off by a performance at the 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena in London.

In the late 2010s, System stepped away from playing extensive tours in favour of standalone dates. Singer Serj Tankian explained last month that the reduced schedule was a result of creative frustration with the touring lifestyle, as well as back surgery that he underwent in 2021.

He told SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk: “For years, personally, I didn’t wanna tour at all. I had back surgery. I had a lot of issues, so I was not, health-wise, in a place where I could travel a lot.”

He continued: “And the idea of the groundhog, the idea of repetition also artistically got to me in terms of continuous long touring. And so it wasn’t really by design. It was kind of by force. That was the only way we could do stuff, is just do one show here, one show there.”

However, as of 2025, System are onboard with touring again. They did a run of shows in South America in the spring, marking their first tour since 2018, and recently played six co-headlining stadium shows in North America. Bassist Shavo Odadjian explained the rejuvenated schedule during an interview with Metal Hammer in April.

“We’re older now, and we respect each other, and we’ve talked,” he said. “We’ve noticed how social media, and the media in general, has swayed us. We’ve just turned everything off and… we’re grateful for each other. We love each other. Anything that has happened between us is minuscule. We’re just playing, doing what we feel like doing. It’s not planned at all.”

Although System are out playing more shows again, don’t expect the follow-up to 2005 double album Mezmerize/Hypnotize to materialise soon. When Trunk asked Tankian last month if there are any plans for a new album in place, the singer replied, “Not at this time.”