| Elect the Dead | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Serj Tankian | |||||
| Released | October 22, 2007 | ||||
| Recorded | Serjical Strike Records The Pass Los Angeles, CA |
||||
| Genre | Hard Rock, Art Rock, Alternative Metal | ||||
| Length | 45:03 (standard edition) 47:52 (Japan) 59:00 (limited edition) 53:52 (iTunes) |
||||
| Label | Serjical Strike/Reprise | ||||
| Producer | Serj Tankian | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
|
|||||
| Serj Tankian chronology | |||||
|
|||||
| Alternate Cover | |||||
Alternate cover of Elect the Dead
|
|||||
| Alternate cover | |||||
cover of special edition
|
|||||
| Singles from Elect the Dead | |||||
|
|||||
Elect the Dead is the solo debut album by (System of a Down frontman) Serj Tankian. Tankian played a majority of the instruments himself but did receive assistance from System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan and former Primus and Guns N' Roses drummer Bryan "Brain" Mantia, along with Dan Monti on guitar and bass, opera singer Ani Maldjian and some string players, Antonio Pontarelli among them.[2] The album was leaked on October 18, 2007. The official tour for Elect the Dead commenced on October 12, 2007 with a show at Chicago's Vic theater.
The first concert had roughly 1,000 people attending, in a medium sized venue. Although Tankian had stated he would not be performing any of System of a Down's material, he performed "Charades", a song co-written by Daron Malakian, the guitarist of System of a Down. Although it is originally a song restricted to piano and vocals, Tankian used his backing band, the Flying Cunts of Chaos (F.C.C.), to provide guitars, drums and bass.
| “ | It's very wide sounding — lots of different sounding instruments. The excitement I had making this record was the same excitement I had making the first System record. | „ |
Tankian has stated that while some of the songs are new, a lot of them have been with him for a while. The first singles from the album are "The Unthinking Majority" and "Empty Walls". The song "Saving Us" was released on Tankian's Last.fm page[3] and his MySpace profile.[4] The video for "Feed Us" was released on the Swedish[5] and UK[6] MTV. Tankian appeared on MTV's You Rock The Deuce to promote Elect the Dead.
Three different promo versions of the album have surfaced to the public. The instrumental promo (PRO-CD-102124), issued by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records and intended for the music and movie industry, contains instrumental versions of the 12 regular album tracks. Another promo version, issued by Reprise Records and made only for individual reviewers, features the regular album in final master form. This promotional CD-R, which was labeled "Smart Talk" as a codename for "Serj Tankian" to prevent leaking by unauthorized persons, also indicates that the album was finalized prior to August 20, 2007.[7] Before this a similar but undated promo, also under the name 'Smart Talk', was issued featuring the final versions of the songs, albeit not yet mastered[citation needed]. Whilst the printed track list on this version is identical the released album, tracks 10 and 11 are in fact juxtaposed on the promo itself.
"Beethoven's Cunt" is currently being offered as a downloadable track to the video game Rock Band.
The song "Blue", which appears on the special edition bonus CD, is a reworking of the System of a Down demo song "Blue" that appeared on the Columbia promo tape which was given away before the release of the band's debut album.
A portion of the song "Lie Lie Lie" is currently featured in the opening title sequence of NBC's Fear Itself, a horror anthology show from the creators of Masters of Horror, and can be viewed on the show's main website.
Contents |
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Serj Tankian.
| # | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Empty Walls" | 3:49 |
| 2. | "The Unthinking Majority" | 3:46 |
| 3. | "Money" | 3:53 |
| 4. | "Feed Us" | 4:31 |
| 5. | "Saving Us" | 4:41 |
| 6. | "Sky Is Over" | 2:57 |
| 7. | "Baby" | 3:31 |
| 8. | "Honking Antelope" | 3:50 |
| 9. | "Lie Lie Lie" | 3:33 |
| 10. | "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" | 4:23 |
| 11. | "Beethoven's Cunt" | 3:13 |
| 12. | "Elect the Dead" | 2:54 |
| Japanese Edition | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Length | |||||||
| 13. | "The Reverend King" | 2:49 | |||||||
| iTunes Edition | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Length | |||||||
| 13. | "The Reverend King" | 2:49 | |||||||
| 14. | "Blue" | 2:45 | |||||||
| 15. | "Falling Stars" | 3:05 | |||||||
| 16. | "Lie Lie Lie" (Music Video) | 3:33 | |||||||
| Special Edition Bonus Disc | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "Blue" | 2:45 | |||||||
| 2. | "Empty Walls" (Acoustic) | 3:46 | |||||||
| 3. | "Feed Us" (Acoustic) | 4:21 | |||||||
| 4. | "Falling Stars" | 3:05 | |||||||
Chart Positions
| Year | Chart | Peak |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Top Canadian Albums |
|
| The Billboard 200 |
|
|
| Austrian Albums Top 75 |
|
|
| German Albums Top 75 |
|
|
| Swiss Albums Top 100 |
|
|
| Finland Albums Top 40 |
|
|
| New Zealand Albums Chart |
|
|
| ARIA Top 50 (Australia) |
|
|
| France Albums Top 150 |
|
|
| UK Albums Chart |
|
Music videos
Music videos were made for every song on the standard edition of the record, each directed by a different director. Tankian explained: "I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of my work. They were asked not to write treatments and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been overwhelmingly amazing!" [8]. Some videos were initially released exclusively to Deluxe Members who purchased the limited edition of Elect the Dead. All of the videos (except "Money") have since been publicly released on Tankian's official website and YouTube channel. Some videos have alternative versions which were originally released as well, but later altered.
Personnel
- All Songs Written & Performed by Serj Tankian (Guitars, Bass, Piano, Vocals, Synthesizers, Drum Programming, Melodica, Bells, and various tone generating beauties) - Stunning Suppository Sounds (BMI)
- All songs recorded at Serjical Strike Studios
- Produced by Serj Tankian
- Engineered by Dan Monti & Serj Tankian
- Mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Music Studios in New York, NY
|
|
- A&R Craig Aaronson & George Tonikian
- Original Artwork Provided by Sako Shahinian
- Album Packaging Design by Sako Shahinian
- Digipack Album Packaging Design by Keith Aazami
- Photography by Greg Watermann
- Worldwide Management Dave Holmes and Darin Harmon
- Booking (US) Don Muller at CAA
- Booking (Europe) Emma Banks at CAA
- Legal Don Passman and Gene Salomon at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, Inc.
- Business Management David Weise at DW & Associates
References
- ^ SERJ TANKIAN Paints Grim Picture With 'Sky Is Over' - Jan. 16, 2008
- ^ Serj Tankian biography on SOADFans fansite
- ^ Serj Tankian's artist page on Last.fm
- ^ Serj Tankian at MySpace
- ^ Swedish MTV
- ^ UK MTV
- ^ Picture of the Elect The Dead promo CD-R
- ^ SYSTEM OF A DOWN Frontman To Post Videos For Each Track On Forthcoming Solo Album
External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)


