"Toxicity" is going on a wall. SYSTEM OF A DOWN will mark the album's twenty-fifth anniversary with a week-long exhibition at Beyond The Streets in Los Angeles, opening Tuesday, October 13 and free to the public for its entire run.
"System Of A Down x Beyond The Streets: Toxicity 25th Anniversary Exhibition" turns the gallery over to a single record: rare artefacts and ephemera from the "Toxicity" era, immersive installations, the album's iconography, exclusive merchandise, and the history that made it what it became.
Which was, by any measure, a lot. Released on September 4, 2001 — one week before the world it was describing rearranged itself — "Toxicity" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was named album of the year by SPIN. Twenty-five years later it has not receded. Its collision of chaos and beauty, aggression and vulnerability, political anger and outright surrealism went on transcending genre and geography, and the record keeps being rediscovered by listeners who were not born when it came out. It endures, as the band's own announcement puts it, because it never asked the world to look away.
Few bands have shaped heavy music this distinctively. Since the multi-platinum self-titled debut in 1998, the Los Angeles four-piece — Daron Malakian (guitars, vocals), Serj Tankian (vocals, keys), Shavo Odadjian (bass) and John Dolmayan (drums) — have sold more than 42 million albums worldwide, sell out stadiums on demand, and register over 26 million monthly listeners on Spotify without having released a studio album since 2005.
Beyond The Streets, at 434 N La Brea Ave, is a gallery dedicated to graffiti and street art, founded by Roger Gastman. Its rotating exhibitions are free and open to the public, which is why an album that spent its life aimed squarely at institutions ends up in one for a week without any of the usual friction. The poster photograph is by Glen E. Friedman.
The exhibition lands in the middle of a busy stretch for the band. SYSTEM OF A DOWN played their first European shows in a decade this summer, and have Australia and New Zealand stadium dates with FAITH NO MORE in 2027.