Twenty-five years after System of a Down's Toxicity debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the Los Angeles gallery Beyond the Streets is opening its doors to artifacts, instruments and ephemera from the album's chaotic, era-defining run. The free exhibition at 434 N. La Brea Ave. opens Tuesday and runs through Sunday, tracing a record that helped turn the band from a rising heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.
The show features rare artifacts, photographs, instruments and memorabilia from the Toxicity era, according to beyondthestreets.com, including backstage passes, posters, flyers, clothing, recording materials and instruments tied to the band's second album. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the exhibition is designed to appeal to casual visitors and longtime fans alike, pairing the band's history with its lasting cultural footprint. Beyond the Streets founder Roger Gastman said visitors can spend five minutes or two hours taking it in, per the same Times report.
Toxicity, released Sept. 4, 2001, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and blended thrash metal, alternative rock, punk and Armenian musical influences, the Times reports. The album produced the singles Aerials, Toxicity and Chop Suey!, the last of which the band mixed as an unreleased track destined for the record. System of a Down's longtime manager, David “Beno” Benveniste, recalled people from neighboring New York studios coming by to hear Chop Suey! during mixing, and told the Times the album's greatness has no shelf life.
A Riot Overshadowed the Release
On Sept. 3, 2001, the night before Toxicity's Sept. 4 release, System of a Down planned a free show in a Hollywood parking lot, but police and fire officials determined the band could not safely perform there and the concert was canceled. According to the Los Angeles Times's contemporaneous 2001 report, roughly 10,000 fans had packed the surrounding area and the gathering turned unruly, and the cancellation became an infamous riot.
About 160 riot-equipped police officers took roughly three hours to restore order and clear the area, that same 2001 Times account states. Six people were arrested on charges including assault on a police officer, several minor injuries were reported, and property damage was estimated at about $30,000, mostly to the band's instruments and sound system, some of which were stolen. Per the Times's current reporting, guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian watched the riot coverage unfold from a nearby hotel after being taken away from the concert site, while fans were struck with rubber bullets during the disorder.
Lyrics Eerily Linked to Sept. 11
One week after Toxicity's release, the Sept. 11 attacks reshaped how listeners heard the album, connecting lyrics written months earlier to the unfolding tragedy, the Times reports. Chop Suey! was among songs taken off radio playlists after the attacks, The Ringer reported. Malakian has said the lyrics could not have been written about the attacks in advance, according to the Times.
Malakian wrote the Toxicity songs while living with his parents, and has said he sought to evolve the band's sound while preserving its identity, never aiming to fit a particular genre, the Times reports. He has credited the band's honesty in its songwriting and lyrics with helping the album remain meaningful a quarter-century later.
From Riot to Diamond Certification
Toxicity's commercial afterlife has only grown. The album sold 222,000 units in its first week in the U.S., according to Billboard, though The Ringer separately reported first-week sales of 220,000 copies. By September 2021, the Ringer reported, Toxicity had sold nearly 3 million copies in the U.S. and 12 million worldwide; on Aug. 28, Toxicity reached seven-times platinum domestically, and Chop Suey! reached 10-times platinum as the band's first diamond-certified single, Metal Injection reported. Chop Suey! has surpassed 2.1 billion Spotify streams, while its official music video has topped 1.6 billion YouTube views, per the Times.
System of a Down has sold more than 42 million albums worldwide, according to Beyond the Streets. The band — Malakian, Serj Tankian, Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan — returned with new material in 2020 for the first time in 15 years, releasing Protect the Land and Genocidal Humanoidz in response to attacks on the members' cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia, the Ringer noted.
Planning a Visit
The Beyond the Streets exhibition is free and open to all ages for its entire run, with designer Bryan Ray Turcotte also featured among those spotlighted at the anniversary show, the Times reports. Visitors are advised to arrive early given the free admission and limited run through Sunday.
