Elect the Dead is the solo debut album by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. Tankian played most of the instruments himself but did receive assistance from System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan and former Primus drummer (and current Guns N' Roses drummer) Bryan "Brain" Mantia, along with Dan Monti on guitar and bass, opera singer Ani Maldjian and some string players, Antonio Pontarelli among them.[2] The album was leaked on October 18, 2007. The official tour for Elect the Dead commenced on October 12 with a show at Chicago's Vic theater.
The first concert had roughly 1,000 people attending, in a medium sized venue. Although Serj had stated he would not be performing any of System of a Down's material, he had performed "Charades", a song co-written by Daron Malakian, the guitarist of System of a Down. Although it is originally a song restricted to piano and vocals, Tankian used his backing band, The Flying Cunts of Chaos (F.C.C.), to provide guitars, drums and bass.
| “ | It's very wide sounding — lots of different sounding instruments. The excitement I had making this record was the same excitement I had making the first System record. | „ |
| —Serj Tankian | ||
Tankian has stated that while some of the songs are new, a lot of them have been with him for a while. The first singles from the album are "The Unthinking Majority" and "Empty Walls". The song "Saving Us" was released on Tankian's Last.fm page[3] and his MySpace.[4] The video for "Feed Us" was released on the Swedish[5] and UK[6] MTV. Serj appeared on MTV's You Rock The Deuce to promote Elect the Dead.
Three different promo versions of the album have surfaced to the public. The instrumental promo (PRO-CD-102124), issued by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records and intended for the music and movie industry, contains instrumental versions of the 12 regular album tracks. Another promo version, issued by Reprise Records and made only for individual reviewers, features the regular album in final master form. This promotional CD-R, which was labeled "Smart Talk" as a codename for "Serj Tankian" to prevent leaking by unauthorized persons, also indicates that the album was finalized prior to August 20, 2007.[7] Before this a similar but undated promo, also under the name 'Smart Talk', was issued featuring the final versions of the songs, albeit not yet mastered. Whilst the printed track list on this version is identical the released album, tracks 10 and 11 are in fact juxtaposed on the promo itself.
The album has been met with very positive reception by both critics and fans alike.[citation needed] However, to this day, it has yet to receive gold certification.
"Beethoven's Cunt" is currently being offered as a downloadable track to the video game Rock Band.
The song "Blue", which appears on the special edition bonus CD, is a reworking of the System of a Down demo song "Blue" that appeared on the Columbia promo tape which was given away before the release of the band's debut album.
A portion of the song "Lie Lie Lie" is currently featured in the opening title sequence of NBC's Fear Itself, a horror anthology show from the creators of Masters of Horror, and can be viewed on the show's main website.
