Serj Tankian: here is the greatest nu metal album of all time

The 57-year-old Serj Tankianfrontman of System of a Down – band entered the firmament of the nu metal era thanks to the 2001 album “Toxicity” – he named the greatest nu metal album of all time in his opinion.

The artist of Armenian origins, born in Beirut, revealed his choice in a recent interview with the magazine “Revolver”, indicating Korn’s debut album as the masterpiece of the genre.

“I’ll have to say the first Korn record,” Tankian says, “because that seems to be when the term ‘nu metal’ was created. I actually don’t think people think of System Of A Down as nu metal. But Korn, for sure.”

AND Tankian he is not the only one to positively evaluate that album, the self-titled self-produced debut of the Californian band, published in 1994is in fact often cited by observers as the first nu metal album. Also stars of the scene like Slipknot, Limp Bizkit And Soulfly they cited him as a key influence. Metal Hammer journalist Stephen Hill wrote of Korn in 2022: “More than a quarter of a century after its release, Korn’s debut album sparked a seismic shift in metal. From the moment frontman Jonathan Davis us asked if we were ready on “Blind” (the opening track of the album), it changed our scene forever. They drew on the influence of Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine and hip-hop, but l ‘They transformed it into something completely new.”

In the same interview, Tankian also reveals the worst concert he ever played. “One of my worst shows was in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,” he recalls. “To be honest, in the United States orchestras don’t have much time to prepare modern compositions. In Europe, however, they give you a little time to work on the material, so the result is better. And so we did the show of Atlanta with just a soundcheck, no time to properly prepare. It was a fucking disaster.”

A few months ago the band’s singer also confessed the concert that changed his life as a boy: Iron Maiden (Read here)

Tankian continues to perform with System Of A Down, although the band hasn’t released a new album since 2005 (“Hypnotize“). Earlier this year the singer released a memoir, “Down With The System” and recently released an EP of solo material titled “Foundations”.