L.A.'S ARMENIAN IDOLS

The biggest coup in rock since Nirvana crept past Poison on the charts more than a decade ago is probably the mainstream success of System of a Down. Their name is weird; their lead vocalist, Serj Tankian, sings like Freddie Mercury channeling Slayer, and their music is nearly impossible to classify. (You might call it prog-rock-metal-politico-pop with an operatic twist.) And it's flat-out impossible to imagine MTV's spring breakers grinding to songs about the Armenian genocide.

But System's 2001 CD "Toxicity" turned out to be well timed: it dropped just as rock fans were growing tired of bands such as Limp Bizkit doing it "all for the nookie," and it sold more than 3 million copies. Suddenly, this unlikely band of Armenian Angelenos had become the new face of hard rock. Now their pair of new albums, "Mezmerize" (which will be out in two weeks) and "Hypnotize" (which will appear sometime in the fall), are two of the most anticipated releases of 2005.

"I have to say that it still kind of freaks me out," says Daron Malakian, System of a Down's main songwriter and guitarist. "We were never like any of the other bands out there, and we still aren't, but here we are. Our new album is already on billboards all over L.A. and New York. I still have no idea how this happened."

Neither do we, but here's how it started. Malakian grew up in Hollywood, next door to Latino and Armenian immigrants and across the street from a crack motel. "I used to ride my bike past the pimps and prostitutes every day," he says. Malakian's parents, who'd emigrated from Iraq, listened to Armenian music at home--his father had been a choreographer for a traditional dance troupe before coming to the United States--while their son soaked in the heavy metal and new wave of '80s radio. He taught himself how to play, and by high school had started a band with singer Tankian. They eventually brought in John Dolmayan on drums and bassist Shavo Odadjian, and signed with Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1997.

On the new "Mezmerize," the anti-Iraq-war single "Cigaro" finds Tankian and Malakian trading vocals like dueling opera divas, while an instrumental on the follow-up "Hypnotize" sounds like a jam session by a Mideastern wedding band, cheesy synthesizer and all. If this all sounds off-putting, it's not: it makes you wish more rock bands would take such brave and impressive risks. "Maybe some people would think it's a strange blend," says Malakian. "But it's just everything that's out there in the world, filtered through us." As for the meaning of their name? Don't bother asking--even the band can't quite explain. Chalk it up as one more thing about System you'll never understand.