Understanding Toxicity

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Background music:
Toxicity (cover) - Lie Likes Music and Maximiliam A.
Glitching a ride - The Whole Other
Fynestlyk - Noir Et Blanc Vie

Video info: System of a Down surprised everyone when they arrived in the metal scene in California in the early 90s. Their mix of traditional armenian music and metal created a dent in the contemporary music realm at the time. In June of 98 they released their debut, self titled album. And the album was so positively received that they were able to tour extensively and open concerts for bands like Slayer and Metallica. But their second album Toxicity is the one that’s considered their big break. It debuted at no. 1 on both the american and canadian charts.

This year the album celebrates it’s 20th anniversary. And so for this occasion i thought i’d take a closer look at the history, lyrics and riffs of one of the songs from the album, the title track, Toxicity. It's a killer song from the album and one of their most successful song releases. Enjoy the video!

[LieLikesMusic]

Thanks to the people who suggested Soad. Now who's next? 🎸🎶

[johndo]

I've always interpreted "Sacred silence" as in the womb before birth, and "Sleep" as death. So between life and death is disorder. The only reprieve we get from a chaotic life is before we're born and after we're dead.

[forthedoggiesguitars]

Aerials is another tune (like Everlong) I don't get sick of. The chorus is so powerful.

[cos]

"Somewhere, between the sacred silence and sleep
Disorder, disorder, disorder"

I think the chaos of life can only stop between the sacred silence and sleep, that tiny moment where you're unconscious and emotionless where the brain loses his grasps for a moment and your soul has a glimpse how what would feel like living.

[DopePhizh]

The song being about the experience of having ADD makes sense.
The seeing life through a tire hub, having fragmented pieces of impressions that is hard to keep track off and combine into something cohesive. Getting lost in thought, daydreaming without a sense of outside yourself, while getting caught in the headlights of a truck.
Being "Wrong", and having to be converted. Being loud, and needing to become docile fuel for the fire of society.
Do they own "You", what you are supposed to be. "How do you own disorder?"
Getting medicated, I, the city, am becoming intoxicated. The toxicity of the city.
I can't sleep. Somewhere between the sacred silence from the thoughts that constantly arise, grabbing my attention, and falling asleep. disorder.

[rappiraptor]

The sacred silence and sleep line always reminded me of how my depression makes me want to sleep, sleep is like death without the commitment

[isaachiggs]

As a person with ADD, I think the chorus makes perfect sense. Please keep in mind that it's technically just a really confident interpretation, but here it is:

Before anitating the lyrics but without the repetition, I have a comment on the chorus in general. What he (the lyricist or the narrator) is trying to say is hard for him to say. That's why lyrics are so amazing; you can say what you need to say to someone in the most honest way even though they'll never understand or care and at least it makes sense and isn't "cringe" to you. This is reflected by the bizarre Grammer and repetition, which might even be a mediphore for studdering and rambling. Speaking of the Grammer, imma translate part of it so we're on the same page: "[And] now disorder [is] somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep!" The particular order of words they do use makes it seem like we're approaching a place or said place is being revealed to us. He turns our attention to this place, and then shows us the horror there. Before I found out what the song was about, I thought it was about pollution and what I pictured was the movement from a blissful and edvanced civilization to a hidden land of broken horrors.

"What do you own the world?"

He addresses some kind of authority figure (probably all of them) which is something people with ADD have issues with. The reason for this explained as simply as possible is, even if we care, we don't always have an easy time and succeed at paying attention. This is a he'll of a concept, so people who exert any kind of authority tend to not know how to deal with us. Which results in a lot of misunderstanding and tension as reflected by the frustration expressed in this line.

"How do you own disorder?"

He asks the addressed individual (like, the whole world, maybe) what they think he should do about it, or how they plan to deal with it, or what they would do if they had it, something like that. It has a lot of possible translations but it's relatively simple. He's basically challenging "you", your actions, and your beliefs about his condition. "How are ya gonna control me if I can't let you?" is one interpretation.
It's also a plea for help. He's demanding that who ever it is needs to pay more attention to us (get it?), and expresses how we're told that we're capable of so much more then disability, but many of us don't know how do access it.

"Now, somewhere between the sacred silence and sleep"

The meaning of sacred silence depends on who you are. Where Do you find the sacred silence? Preyer? Reading? Paralysis? Trying and failing to sleep? Attempted conversation? Notice how most of these empliy deep thought and perhaps wasted time. But it's "sacred" silence. The state this line describes is when you just let your mind run wild and lose focus on reality, and it's so consuming that it's beyond the sacred silence; it's almost sleep. This is the other world you escape to if your ADD controlles you.
The other meaning of this is line is darker. What's probably the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "sacred silence" is death. One can enterpret a disabled person as somewhere between sleeping and dead, incapable of anything, impossible to reason with, impossible to save. Imagine if someone saw you that way. Now imagine if you believed them.

"Disordor!"

The message here is in the way he sings it. He's showing us what the word can do to someone. It can leave you horrified by yourself.

[budgetlifter]

What a splendid pie
Pizza-pizza pie
Every minute, every second
Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy

Pepperoni and green peppers
Mushrooms, olive, chives
Pepperoni and green peppers
Mushrooms, olive, chives

[MMiler]

Little known fact: Rick's full name is Rickenbacker Beatomatic

[IRDeady]

Never heard the ADD thing before. I've always taken the song as just a general critique of society. Eating seeds to me has always meant just eating seeds. When you think about it a seed is something that could become something much bigger, it's the potential for life, but we just say fuck it and eat it while we watch sports. That being said I've always thought of Serg as a stream of consciousness type of lyricist, where not everything makes sense because it isn't supposed to in any real concrete way, but rather the words are just supposed to invoke feelings in the same way an abstract painting might, with the ultimate answer being provided by the audience.

[danielclark-hughes]

I could listen to you break down the whole fucking album like this.

[cranklabexplosion-labcentr]

The first part of that Rick Rubin quote... so many “local” bands need to hear that.

[maxadrums]

Man, I’m having a bunch of fun joining you for these ones! Gotta make it a hat-trick!

[TheApeMachine]

As an insomniac I interpret the sacred silence as the time when everybody sleeps and I keep working. To me it's the best time, because the entire world is silent, and nothing is out there about to bother you with questions, demands, or other invasions of your time. However that does not mean you don't get tired, in fact you owe yourself so much in sleep debt that you're always tired, but cognitively it does something that can work in your favor sometimes. It's like you stop trying to control or judge your ideas, and so creative ideas and/or solutions jump more easily to the frontend of your mind or something. I've noticed a similar effect when going without food for a while. No clue if this is what it's about, but you asked, so there it is. The disorder part fits pretty good as well, as for sure if I'm still awake around 06:00 things get a little chaotic, maybe even sooner already, now that I'm a little older, but like all focus will be lost and your sort of on auto-pilot. That's when you find yourself doing things like obsessing over one detail and trying to make that perfect only to find out it has no reason, or you are just staring at something for an hour lost in thought, totally forgetting where you are.

[TheStinkzoid]

Holy shit! As someone who grew up with Max's older brother. It was quite the shock to see him featured in one of your videos.
Keep up the great work!

[Vivec]

Get in, been waiting for this one! Absolutely timeless album

[tehteh]

I don't think that passage is that cryptic...I imagine someone with attention disorder - as someone with severe anxiety I guess I know the feeling sometimes - they feel like the brain is constantly active, and the sacred silence is perhaps the moment when the minds quietens, whether because of the drugs or not....because it definitely doesn't stop when we sleep

it seems to me - after reading the lyrics through - that maybe the song is much more personal than critical, it sounds more like the subject is trying to take control but can't...I don't know, maybe that's just me going a tangent

[claykline]

Really great video bro, I like your editing which is more vibrant and easy to follow, it's good to pay attention to guitars like that

[ion_force]

I keep coming back to this song, year after year. It's such a masterpiece packed into such a short runtime.
For lack of a better word when it comes to music theory, the "world-building" of that intro is so iconic and impactful every single time.
It really takes you somewhere. And the drum pattern is equally as hypnotic as the opening riff. That delayed snare on the last bar gets me every time. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Ps. I think "eating seeds as a pastime activity" refers to gopnik culture of literally sitting on the floor and eating sunflower seeds for hours on end. Literally a way to pass the time in russia.

[Nic_Official]

When trying to interpret the lyrics "now, somewhere between the sacred silence, sacred silence and sleep" from an ADD analysis lens, I think that "sacred silence" could reference death and sleep is referencing a passive form of living (like zoning out, being on autopilot, or similar examples). Granted this is the case, paired with the lyrics "disorder, disorder, disorder", it gets me thinking that the lyrics are referencing how the disorder (the disorder in question being ADD) makes the sufferer feel like they are just floating in a space between what feels like passive life and "sacred silence".