System of a Down frontman to play Liverpool date

Aug 26 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

Serj Tankian _320

SYSTEM of a Down frontman Serj Tankian arrives in Liverpool for his first solo show in the city next week.

Currently going it alone (describing the band, best known for their 2001 album Toxicity, as being on "indefinite hiatus") his album, Elect the Dead, was released last October.

His show at the Carling Academy next Tuesday (Sept 2) is a rescheduling after the original April date was postponed.

The Lebanon-born singer and activist is known for his intense, politicised and Middle Eastern- tinged heavy rock.

Tankian says: "Elect the Dead is a rock record that takes you on a journey with different types of genres integrated, different lyrical themes digested, and many fun and colour- ful moments to enjoy. It’s more intimate, orchestral, and exploratory all at the same time, yet a very quality album. In fact, it’s the best work I’ve ever done in my life to date.

"With making this album on my own, versus with a full band, there are certain vulnerabil- ities and intimacies you can only express by yourself, when you’re representing only yourself. There are love songs, pain songs . . . very personal songs. And, of course, there are political songs."

Alongside Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the pair set up Axis of Justice, a non-profit org- anisation serving as a fund and platform to a diverse range of just causes.

A second solo album from Tankian is scheduled for next year.