Album Review: Serj Tankian - Harakiri

This third solo outing from the System Of A Down frontman is the first part of a four album concept, however, given that the other albums are said to be styled in the ways of jazz, electronica and orchestral suites, this is no doubt the best musical jumping point for most fans of Tankian's back catalogue.

Covering standard topics such as corporate greed, bloodshed on borders, materialism in society and how we are fucking up the world in general, Tankian is as strange and dada-esque with his verses as he's ever been. The music that carries his distinct voice is less expected, however, but that's a good thing. The instrumentation on Harakiri works in different ways to give the album balance and a broad spectrum of sonic colour. Straight-forward rock moments like Cornucopia and Butterfly pack a direct and forceful punch, while the refrain of  songs like Forget Me Knot and Deafening Silence break up the second half of the record nicely, the latter providing a smattering of electronic bursts and what even sounds like a human beat box. But it's those inane, if somewhat expected, moments, Reality TV and single Figure It Out for example, that really grind after a few spins. On SOAD records, Daron Malakian's duelling vocals or the rhythm section of Dolmayan and Odadijan would get the tracks over the line, the songs used as fast skits as opposed to real songs. On Harakiri, they are simply annoying.

There's plenty of panicked vocal brilliance here and a few curious musical turns, but overall, for fans of SOAD and indeed Tankian as an artist, there's nothing here that's going to change your life.