Serj Tankian Says "There Has Been Talk" Of A New System Of A Down Album

System Of A Down‘s Serj Tankian has again sparked rumours of a possible follow-up to the band’s 2005 album Hypnotize, confirming in a new interview that there “has been talk” of a new SOAD record.

Speaking to Rolling Stone of possible album plans, Tankian said, “There has been talk, and we are going to play this [upcoming U.S.] tour, come back and we’re going to see where we are. If we have songs that work for System, if I have them and Daron [Malakian, guitar] has them. The openness is there to work together, but we haven’t made any particular plans that we can announce.”

Asked if he has been personally working on songs for SOAD, Tankian said, “I have a few that could apply, but I’m not sure until the time comes where I can actually play them for the guys and see if it’s something that vibes off them.”

He assured that should a new System Of A Down album happen, fans will be the first to know about it. “Fans will know before the press knows, I assure you.”

Now a decade since their last record, speculation of a sixth System Of A Down album ramped up further last year when the band returned to the stage to perform at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas event in California. At the same time, they also announced a limited-run Wake Up The Souls world tour for 2015, marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide where an estimated 1.5 million Armenian were arrested and executed by the Turkish Ottoman government.

System Of A Down’s upcoming tour will culminate with a free show in Armenia on April 23rd, a day before the country commemorates the anniversary. This will be SOAD’s first show in Armenia despite the fact that the band members are all descendants of the genocide’s survivors.

Talk of a sixth System Of A Down album has, of course, been on and off for years. Just last year drummer John Dolmayan spoke out about the group’s lack of output in recent years. “We’re turning into the fucking Eagles now,” he said. “15 years are gonna go by before we make a new album. For me, it’s irritating.”

While System of a Down haven’t released any new albums in a decade, Serj Tankian has been busy at work releasing five solo records and numerous collaborations. Most recently he lent his voice to an EDM track by producer Benny Benassi called Shooting Helicopters.

Gallery: System Of A Down – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 29/02/2012

Photos by Brett Schewitz