System of a Down was not an easy sell to me. It wasn't until late that I jumped on that bandwagon, when tracks like "Chop Suey" would get multiple plays on jukeboxes. The fact that they were politically active around their Armenian identity further guided my appreciation for them. I am not Armenian, but a friend is, and I further embraced their musical style. There had to be something there that I wasn't seeing.
Again, late and now over two decades later, and since broken up, System of a Down's influence continues via a new generation of artists. Alexandra Drewchin AKA Eartheater has clearly accepted the challenge to cover this song. Before even hearing it, I could only assume Eartheater would have to show some physical prowess on her part to match the song. Mostly because she's shown off her dynamic range in loud chaos and minimal stillness.
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Up until this release, I've never known the meaning to "Chop Suey". I wasn't so introspective about things like this then as I am now. Daron Malakian reportedly told NME that the song is about how people are viewed through death, specifically their cause of death.
"The song is about how we are regarded differently depending on how we pass. Everyone deserves to die. Like, if I were now to die from drug abuse, they might say I deserved it because I abused dangerous drugs. Hence the line, 'I cry when angels deserve to die'…”
Again, the song is over 20-years old now. Daron was a different person then, that's plenty of time for all of us to be different people. Hell, I just realized this week why Bane was so pissed that his henchmen brought Commissioner Gordan before him, a little over 10-years since The Dark Knight Rises.
I also haven't heard any other covers of this song. Others who have attempted, this year Lil Uzi Vert autotuned his half-assed attempt at it, which distracts from the message the song conveys. Even when I go through the lyrics, I can only guess what different parts mean but when I put them together, I have a choppy narrative. It's not easy and other covers, loungey jazz for instance, that take a different path are novelty, unfortunately.
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Eartheater's version works for me in that it takes advantage of that ambiguous nature of the song, making me feel what I think the song should, which is concern. I'm worried about the person with the self-righteous suicide point of view. The echoing layers of Alexandra's vocals with the guitar's lowered tuning, act at the audio to the kaleidoscope nature of the cover art.
At 2:32, the guitar is replaced by dream-like piano while Alexandra takes that midsection to build up. I hear something in the sound that feels like a looming threat into 3:04. That's when it hits differently and better than the original does. I feel that I might be doing Eartheater a disservice by framing this cover as a darker vision, but I feel that when SOAD talk about the anxieties they were experiencing when writing "Chop Suey!", I feel this was the intention. When Alexandra returns to that well-known verse, it explodes in ecstasy like the climactic moment in a devotional, with added percussion, soft but firm.
Check out the track for yourself and tell us what you think of Eartheater's cover!
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