Following up his 2007 solo debut, former System Of A Down frontman Serj Tankian decided it would be fun to record a live performance of said solo debut with the help of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Unlike other metal acts such as Metallica, Tankian actually went through the trouble of rearranging all of the songs so that they could be performed by just the orchestra. That means no pounding drums or deafening guitars.
It works for a couple of songs such as “Feed Us”, “Sky Is Over” or the title track. It doesn’t work at all however for a song like “Money”, a track that normally profits from its crescendoing chorus which here becomes one big mess of things. Plus Tankian’s sometimes shrill voice which always worked wonders for him in a metal environment, here more often than not falls short alongside the bombastic arrangements.
You gotta hand it to the guy though… it takes balls to pull a thing like this off and as far as I’m concerned he came a lot closer than Metallica with their “S&M” failure. Close but no cigar!
Score: 6 out of 10
http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com
http://www.serjtankian.com
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