Now it’s personal

Tackling everything from shortsighted social policies to media consolidation to the lemming-like conformity of the masses, System of a Down is one of the most overtly political bands in modern rock, but don’t call them a political band. The Los Angeles four-piece prefers the more neutral “art” label.

Even so, they’ll be using their art to make a loud political statement when they headline “Souls, 2004,” a concert benefiting organizations working to eradicate genocides across the globe and to encourage recognition of the Armenian genocide. The concert takes place Saturday, on the commemoration of the Ottoman Empire’s killing of about 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923. It’s an atrocity few Americans know about. It isn’t written in most school textbooks, nor is it formally recognized by the U.S. government, despite decades of promises from various presidents and present-day Congressional initiatives. But it’s a deeply personal issue to the band’s members, all of whom are of Armenian descent.

“My grandfather never knew how old he was because so much of my family history was lost in the Armenian genocide,” said guitarist Daron Malakian, the only member of the band who was born in the U.S.

“If not for my grandfather’s memories, I would know nothing of my family tree before his lifetime,” said singer Serj Tankian, whose accent still bears traces of a faraway land.

“It’s just really personal for all of us,” bassist Shavo Odadjian said. “There’s a lot of political issues of course that go with it, but the reason why it’s called Souls for me is there’s all these souls that aren’t at rest right now. Their deaths are overlooked.”

The subject of the Armenian genocide is not the group’s only concern, though it has long been addressed by the band. The band’s 1998 smash success, the self-titled “System of a Down,” concluded with an incendiary, metal-edged takedown called “P.L.U.C.K. (Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers).” Three years later, on their Grammy-nominated follow-up, “Toxicity,” they again brought it up on the short but effective “X.”

With “Souls, 2004,” they take the power of those lyrics and turn them into direct action. The second in what they hope will be an annual concert series designed to raise awareness of the issue and exert political pressure on the U.S. and Turkish governments to recognize the genocide, the band expects to raise about $100,000 from this weekend’s concert at the Greek Theatre.

But the show will not be a political rally. There will be no fiery speeches, no sloganeering, no banners, though booklets about the genocide will be available for those who are interested. Everyone else can just rock out to System’s unique, thinking man’s metal, which will be primed with warmups from Saul Williams, Zach Hill and Bad Acid Trip, the latter of which is signed to Tankian’s label, Serjical Strike.

“People don’t like hearing speeches,” Tankian said. “We’re just gonna play.”

Playing is, after all, what they do best. Long before their signing to American Recordings in 1997, they had developed a huge following based entirely on their live shows -- tireless episodes of intense, hard-core mayhem led by the cynically messianic Tankian and propelled by a tightly wound rhythm section. Seven years and three records later, their shows have lost none of their spit and sizzle.

Heralded as the vanguard of the nu-metal scene -- another label they disdain -- the group is at work on its next record. In the North Hollywood studio where System rehearses, more than 20 songs are listed on a marker board, but how many or which of those songs will make it on the record hasn’t been decided. Nor has the record’s release date.

All the group will say about the new album is that “it will make you think and laugh at the same time,” according to Malakian, who pens the music. In other words, it will do what their records have always done -- juxtapose the absurd and the serious while playing with tempos and temperaments.

During a recent interview with the band, the conversation danced from subject to subject with little prompting -- the evils of television, short-attention-span political coverage, corporate mind control, two-party politics, individualistic selfishness, apathetic teens, the Armenian genocide, spirituality. How much, if any, of those topics will be addressed on their new record is unknown. What’s clear is that ever since the group’s first hit single in 1998 -- the lyrically sarcastic, vocally schizophrenic and rhythmically nonlinear “Sugar” -- System of a Down hasn’t played by conventional rock rules.

“We’re a band that reflects life,” Malakian said. “Even though we do talk politics, life is all around us. Politics is a part of life. We just mesh it all into our art. We’re more a social band than a political band.”

Perhaps more accurately, they are a social band concerned with political issues that are shaped by a common ancestry and anchored with a deep spirituality.

“I kind of always had the vibe from when we were first on tour, just the souls of the genocide of our ancestors, of our grandparents, of our grandparents’ parents, that they had something to do with our success, spiritually saying, and pushed us along,” Malakian said.

Addressing the Armenian genocide, he said, “is our duty in a way. There isn’t exactly a million Armenians out there who are so famous in the entertainment industry.”

Susan Carpenter can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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System of a Down

On their heritage and calling attention to the Armenian genocide:

Serj Tankian, vocalist

“Geopolitics or military strategy is not an excuse to deny the killing of 1.5 million people.... Could you envision us making a deal with modern Germany if they backed us on the war on Iraq if only we go back and we destroy the Holocaust museum? Well, that’s what we’re doing with Turkey.”

Daron Malakian, guitarist

“Everybody used to tell us, ‘Change this, change that. Four Armenian guys? Who’s gonna buy that?’ ... One thing that kept me confident we were doing the right thing is we have a huge backing on the spiritual side.”

John Dolmayan, drummer

“We’ve come from very similar places in one respect, and in another, all four of us come from very different backgrounds. So we have that heritage in common. It all came out of our love for music. Everything we have together is built on our love for music.”

Shavo Odadjian, bass player

“To me, it’s not really a political thing, it’s more of a personal thing because I don’t know beyond my grandparents. My grandfather never knew his birthday. It’s not just me; most Armenians went through this.”

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‘Souls, 2004’

Where: The Greek Theatre, 2700 N. Vermont, L.A.

When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Price: $45

Info: (323) 665-1927 or www.systemofadown.com