Since , the band has consisted of founding members Serj Tankian lead vocals, keyboards ; Daron Malakian guitar, vocals ; Shavo Odadjian bass, backing vocals ; along with John Dolmayan drums , who replaced original drummer Andy Khachaturian in The band achieved commercial success with the release of five studio albums, three of which debuted at number one on the US Billboard System of a Down has been nominated for four Grammy Awards , and their song " B.
The band went on hiatus in and reunited in Other than two new songs in " Protect the Land " and " Genocidal Humanoidz " , [ 2 ] System of a Down has not released any new material since the Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums in The band has sold over 12 million records worldwide, while two of their singles, " Aerials " and " Hypnotize ", reached number one on Billboard ' s Alternative Songs chart.
All members of System of a Down are of Armenian descent, either born to Armenian immigrants or immigrants themselves. Due to their eight-year age difference, they did not meet until while working on separate projects at the same recording studio. Helium on bass and Domingo "Dingo" Laranio on drums. The band hired Shavo Odadjian another Rose and Alex Pilibos alumnus as manager, although he eventually joined Soil on second guitar.
In , after only one live show at the Roxy and one jam session recording, Hakopyan and Laranio left the band. The group took its name from a poem that Malakian had written titled "Victims of a Down". Shortly after the event, System of a Down made what is known as Untitled Demo Tape , which was not commercially released, but eventually appeared on file-sharing networks around the time of the band's success with Toxicity about six years later.
Demo Tape 2 was released in At the beginning of , System of a Down recorded their final publicly released demo tape, Demo Tape 3. In mid, drummer Khachaturian left the band because of a hand injury he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan. The band's first official and professionally recorded song was on a collection called Hay Enk "We're Armenian" in English , an Armenian genocide recognition compilation in After playing at notable Hollywood clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go and Viper Room , the band caught attention of producer Rick Rubin , who asked them to keep in touch.
