Toxicity

It was recorded at Cello Studios in Hollywood. The band cut more than thirty songs and narrowed the album to fourteen; several of the rest were re-recorded for Steal This Album! in 2002. Guitarist Daron Malakian said he "wanted to add a bit more harmony for" himself "in the songs and that required tastefully mixing in some softer guitars between the really heavy parts", and he names the Beatles as an influence. Most of it is written in drop C. The subjects run wide. "Prison Song" is about mass incarceration; Serj Tankian described it as "the unfairness of mandatory minimum sentences and how there are about 2,000,000 Americans in jail, and a lot of them are in there for marijuana possession and things of that sort". "Chop Suey!" takes drug addiction and makes it a little quacky, in bassist Shavo Odadjian's words; "ATWA" is about Charles Manson's views on the environment and "Psycho" about groupies. It went to number one on both the Billboard 200 and the Canadian chart, selling 220,000 copies in its first week. Every single from it reached the Hot 100, and the last, "Aerials", topped both the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. A free concert in Hollywood the day before release was cancelled because the venue was overcrowded, and the crowd rioted for six hours. The running order here is the original's as printed.