Angels & Suicide?! "Chop Suey" Vocal ANALYSIS and a deep dive into Serj Tankian of System Of A Down

welcome back to the charismatic voice i have become a bit obsessed with system of down and i feel like we can't listen to all of their songs on this channel fast enough today i'm going to check out for the first time a song called chop suey this is based on your recommendations shout out to subscriber lo so one who wrote you definitely need to listen to their song chop suey it's amazing vocal play in that one and fascinating lyrics and theme and thank you to everyone for thumbs upping that as well i am all about checking out some more vocal play from serge yes let's bring it on let's get to it [Music] whoa [Music] and there's so much that's happening in this right away and uh it almost sounds like there were like different kinds of voices almost different personalities of stage or i don't know if maybe some of the guys are also doing backing vocals in this um but also the scale choice that they're basing some of these things off is really fascinating i'm sure that that is from their background which is just it's so cool okay i'm gonna go back to the beginning here um there was so much going on i felt like i just couldn't couldn't grasp all the greatness of the little things in me really [Music] the build is one of the things that got me right away and the way it has a really big shift later i find it so satisfying when he comes in on the drums we have a lot more of those toms um it flows in that lower end end [Music] it's so interesting that they're just essentially outlining some part of a skill in g minor but all of these different instruments are riffing around that at this moment i want to go back one more time [Music] we get harmony there along with the palms and even the way that they're um playing it almost sounds like a like a banjo strumming that's fun i like the way when it moves up there's a certain hopefulness and then it settles back down and it sounds almost depressing it feels like there's a lot of emotion in those musical choices okay i'm going to start here with that big shift happened [Music] i have to go back and talk about the musical thing first because there's so much happening in serge's vocal that i'm becoming super distracted and drawn into it [Music] so it's happening here you essentially have like a diminished chord but it's starting on a g so we had that g minor idea that was happening before and then it's going into a diminished f sharp diminished chord which can essentially resolve back into g minor diminished chords have a ton of tension in them they're like the most tense harmonic structure it just wants to uh if you build up a bunch of diminished chords it tends to be lots of uh there's half steps in there that are fighting against each other um it's got some augmented force in there essentially that are fighting against each other as well and it wants to resolve into a place so it really surprises me that they're just going over this diminished quote over and over and over it really builds up even more tension after that sort of sad g minor beginning [Music] yeah right so much tension harmonically self righteous [Music] this is it's just so cool the different things he's doing and it feels almost schizophrenic and the approach of these different voices um wake up wake up i think there's like a whisper and then there's you wanted to that it's like he's commenting on his own stuff i'm guessing that this most have must have been recorded in two different takes because sometimes those whispers seem like they overlap but i don't know i mean in live i'm guessing he does them both and they just overlap really quickly we also had some backing vocals i think this is from darren i think that's daryn is the other person who's seen some of those backing vocals i believe so um i actually have a quote from darren i'm gonna i pulled out a quote that i was reading ahead of time and this is what darren said about the song the song is about how when people die they will be regarded differently depending on the way they pass like if i were to die from a drug overdose everyone would say i deserved it because i abused drugs hence the line angels deserve to die and that happened just in this last part uh when they were harmonizing so that's really deep and really dark there's so much more that's happening in these areas i want to talk about them some more but let's go back and listen to it one more time [Music] it's so i disguised to fade away the shake up and this up putting idea of putting on makeup it's it's really talking about darkness i think inside of us and hiding the scars to fade away i love the way that he did that in a whisper as well because it's almost like the i call them toilet bowl thoughts that get in your head and just they they're awful like you don't want those thoughts in your head but they they can be there and it's almost like another voice that doesn't help you live your best life and so the way that he comes in with these whispers as if it's some sort of subconscious or toiletable thought if we will um it it's very effective and the intensity of it i think is very accurately capturing um how dark a person can feel at times okay i'm gonna go back one more time we'll talk some more about this i i'm just loving so many of the different elements in the song you wanted to grab a brush you wanted to i just got the baby with the shaker you wanted to leave the kids up on the table you wanted to why don't they trust [Music] angels deserve to come so serge when he starts into this section his voice has this beautiful clean closure it's just the phonation is extremely efficient in the sound is one way i would describe it also it feels very natural he's using um he's using his own unique sound it doesn't sound like he's trying to be someone else he's taking all the different influences in his life and bringing them together in something that is just inherently him and having very natural efficient phonation then when he gets to die there's this incredible amount of intensity and distortion that he's adding on top the fact that he's able to have such clean beautiful phonation and then have that scream that has that distortion tells me that he's doing this the right way the clean phonation is not being distressed essentially by the harsh phonation and that's great that means he's using different parts for his larynx essentially to create those sounds it's fantastic because i hope that he continues singing for a very very very long time i want to go back just a little bit again listen to the differences in phonation there oh [Music] [Music] angels deserve to come [Music] [Music] i i'm so so impacted by the whispers and the intensity of the whispers in there and his facial expressions when he's doing them too i just i love love love this choice so much um let's talk a little bit about the name of the song i when i saw that you all recommended chop suey i was thinking okay so it's about an asian dish right what is this song and then read a little bit more into it apparently they'd originally intended to call this song suicide going back to judging people by how they die right they'd called this song suicide but that was quite controversial as i'm sure you probably imagined and so they decided to call it chop suey meaning that suicide was chopped in half to just suey i feel so strongly that it's important to take care of mental health you've heard me talk many many times about that and so having somebody essentially expose the intense chaos that can happen inside of a brain and like i said these toiletable thoughts i think it's just a brilliant way to peek inside of what a psyche might be trying to figure out and work through in such an awful situation so it's amazing it's incredible and um i should feel very thankful that they even approach the subject and dive into it so well he wanted to i discussed that he wanted to name the kids about the table he wanted to i don't think you trust [Music] my self [Music] i'm sorry i think that they're making fun of their own title with that picture wait where is it the boredom and eating i wonder if they're eating chop soup either because it seems like they're making fun of their own title [Music] self-righteousness [Applause] [Music] this is beautiful i love the background with the strings right that's pulling out even more emotion he even adds in a little ornament in here at one point probably from his ah probably from his past i want to say it's so cool we've got like um so much culture in their music while at the same time being so metal i i really dig it [Music] [Applause] right there i love that ornament oh so cool because that's mainstream [Music] [Music] [Music] whoa oh my goodness this is like disturbing now um that shift in the song and of course the screaming of father and father into your hands i come in my spirit oh man this has so many religious undertones to it as well and maybe just the desperation of like wanting to be in a better place oh my gosh this is brilliant and moving and uh exciting and sad at the same time [Music] why have you forsaken [Music] in your heart forsaken me [Applause] [Music] oh this the emotional swelling that's happening at this point in this song especially because i feel like um the the vocal lines from surge uh it the main one has so much connection to his core sound it almost sounds like elongated crying just fantastic and then the harmonies are just their glorious they add to that that feeling and that pull wow the song is breathtaking i'm i'm shocked by it and shocked by how much they're able to pack into such a short amount of time i'm gonna go back here uh because i want to feel that um emotional swell probably from even earlier [Music] i just want to point out he's working in this part he's working over that uh that cord again that i was talking about that had so much tension in it and i think it's important to note that because it feels like it's so frustrating into your hands i come in my spirit that's where you have the most tension and then it starts to resolve out as a person's asking these questions [Music] me in your thoughts forsaken me in your heart forsaken me [Applause] [Music] angels deserve to die [Music] wow whoa wow that song is a lot to unpack i mean not only is it extremely impressive technically vocally so many different sounds that serge is making and backing singers too with brilliant harmonies in there and the composition is fascinating the way it evolves yet comes back to certain moments it i just think it's so much and it was less than four minutes long crazy impressive i thought wow those lyrics there are so many different ways you could interpret this but i think it's important that we just go back to those words that darren had said that the song is about how when people die they will be regarded differently depending on the way they pass and i kind of go back in my life and i think wow did i regret somebody differently because of how they passed did i not have the empathy that was deserved in that situation so i feel that the song has such a huge impact at least it does on me and that's beyond just incredibly appreciating the musicianship that has gone into it if you'd like to see some more analysis of system of a down there's a playlist over here i love these guys it's so much so please comment and tell me what other sewed song i should do next hope to see you somewhere soon [Music]

Channel: The Charismatic Voice

Views: 2,725,442

Keywords: system of a down, chop suey, system of a down reaction, the charismatic voice, system of a down the charismatic voice, SOAD chop suey, soad reaction chop suey, soad reaction video

Id: 2xCqb6bWOiM

Length: 20min 55sec (1255 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022