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System Of A Down

5 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide Alternative Metal

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Band Overview

History and Guitar Legacy

System Of A Down emerged from Los Angeles in the mid-1990s, forming in 1994 and releasing five studio albums between 1998 and 2005. The band blended Armenian folk influences, Progressive Metal, punk aggression, and avant-garde experimentation into a distinctive heavy sound. Their guitar work pushed boundaries by being heavy without relying on standard metal clichés, featuring rhythmically unpredictable, harmonically adventurous, and dynamically explosive riffs that redefined modern heavy music.

Playing Style and Techniques

Daron Malakian's guitar style fuses rapid-fire palm-muted chugging with open-string dissonance, Middle Eastern melodic intervals, and abrupt dynamic shifts. His leads are melodic and vocal-like rather than traditional solos, serving the song's purpose. Rhythm playing is the real challenge: odd-time signatures, stop-start dynamics, and syncopated grooves demand serious right-hand precision and internal timing, locked tightly with John Dolmayan's drumming.

Why Guitarists Study System Of A Down

SOAD offers guitarists a complete technical and stylistic education. Learning their catalog develops palm-muting control, clean-to-distortion transitions, unusual time feels, and dynamic sensitivity. The sheer variety within their songs teaches multiple approaches to heavy guitar playing. If you want to become a versatile, rhythmically aware heavy guitarist, few bands offer better study material than System Of A Down.

Difficulty and Learning Path

The band predominantly uses Drop C tuning, giving riffs thick low-end heaviness while allowing melodic single-string runs on higher strings. Difficulty varies across their catalog. Songs like 'Chop Suey!' and 'Toxicity' sit in the intermediate range, while 'Sugar' demands aggressive downpicking stamina comparable to early Metallica. System Of A Down suits intermediate to advanced guitarists seeking serious technical challenge.

What Makes System Of A Down Essential for Guitar Players

  • Daron Malakian's palm-muting technique in Drop C tuning is exceptionally tight and percussive. Songs like "Sugar" require relentless downpicking at high tempos with precise muting control, your right hand will build serious stamina working through SOAD riffs.
  • Dynamic contrast is a signature SOAD technique. Tracks like "Chop Suey!" shift from gentle clean arpeggios to crushing distorted power chords within seconds, so learning these songs trains your ability to manage gain staging and pick attack on the fly.
  • Malakian frequently incorporates Middle Eastern and Armenian melodic scales, think Phrygian dominant and harmonic minor intervals, into otherwise heavy riffing contexts. This gives you melodic vocabulary that sounds exotic and unexpected over standard metal chord progressions.
  • Odd-time signatures and syncopated rhythms are everywhere in SOAD's catalog. "Toxicity" features verses built on unusual rhythmic groupings that feel natural but are deceptively complex to nail accurately. Practicing these riffs develops your ability to count and feel non-standard meters.
  • Many SOAD songs use open-string drones and dissonant intervals rather than standard power chord shapes. "Aerials" is a great example, the main riff combines fretted notes against open strings to create a haunting, ringing quality that teaches you about voice leading in heavy contexts.

Did You Know?

Daron Malakian tracked most of SOAD's studio albums using a Gibson SG through a Marshall JCM900, a surprisingly straightforward rig for such a complex, layered sound. The heaviness comes from the tuning and playing technique, not excessive gain.

The band tunes to Drop C (C-G-C-F-A-D) on the vast majority of their songs, which was somewhat unusual for late-'90s metal bands who tended toward Drop D or standard tuning. This tuning choice gives their riffs a distinctly thick, almost baritone quality.

"Chop Suey!" was originally titled "Suicide" but was renamed after 9/11. From a guitar perspective, the song's intro features one of the most recognizable clean-to-heavy transitions in modern rock, it's become a rite of passage for intermediate guitarists.

Producer Rick Rubin worked with the band on Toxicity and encouraged them to keep guitar tones relatively dry and present in the mix, avoiding the heavily scooped tones popular in nu-metal at the time. This is why Malakian's guitar cuts through so clearly.

Malakian often writes riffs on acoustic guitar first, which explains why many SOAD riffs have a melodic, almost folk-like quality beneath the distortion. Try playing "Aerials" or "Toxicity" on a clean acoustic, the underlying melody becomes strikingly clear.

Despite being one of the heaviest bands of their era, Malakian uses relatively few effects pedals live. His signal chain is famously minimal: guitar into a wah pedal, into the amp. The tonal shifts in songs come from pickup selection and pick dynamics rather than pedal switching.

The guitar harmonies in "Aerials" were layered in the studio with Malakian playing both parts himself. The song's soaring post-chorus melody is a great exercise in tracking yourself and understanding how two guitar parts can create a sound bigger than either alone.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Toxicity album cover
Toxicity 2001

This is the essential SOAD album for guitarists. "Chop Suey!" teaches clean-to-heavy dynamic transitions and fast chord changes, "Toxicity" develops your ability to feel odd-time grooves, and "Aerials" works your melodic phrasing over droning open strings. The album covers nearly every technique Malakian is known for in a cohesive, brilliantly produced package.

Spotify Apple Music
System Of A Down album cover
System Of A Down 1998

The self-titled debut is raw, aggressive, and relentlessly fast. "Sugar" is a downpicking endurance test that rivals anything in thrash metal, and tracks like "Suite-Pee" push your palm-muting precision to the limit. If you want to build right-hand stamina and learn to play tight at high BPMs, start here.

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Mezmerize album cover
Mezmerize 2005

Mezmerize showcases Malakian at his most melodically adventurous. Songs like "B.Y.O.B." feature wildly shifting tempos and feel changes within a single track, while "Question!" combines punk-speed power chords with Armenian-flavored melodies. Great for guitarists who want to practice genre-switching within songs.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Daron Malakian is most closely associated with the Gibson SG, particularly vintage-style SG Standards with dual humbuckers. He's also used Ibanez Iceman models during various tours and recordings. In later years, he developed signature models with Gibson, but the classic SOAD tone from Toxicity and the self-titled album is pure SG, a lightweight, aggressive guitar that pairs perfectly with Drop C tuning thanks to its bright, cutting midrange that prevents low-tuned riffs from sounding muddy.

Amp

Malakian's primary amp through SOAD's classic era was the Marshall JCM900, typically a dual-reverb 100-watt head running through a 4x12 cabinet with Celestion speakers. The JCM900 provides a tighter, more focused high-gain sound than the JCM800, with enough midrange bite to cut through Serj Tankian's vocals and Shavo Odadjian's bass. He runs the gain around 6-7, enough saturation for heavy riffs but not so much that palm-muted notes lose definition. He's also been spotted using Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifiers for additional low-end thickness on certain tracks.

Pickups

Malakian primarily uses stock Gibson humbuckers, typically 490R (neck) and 498T (bridge) pickups found in standard SGs. These are medium-to-hot output humbuckers (around 8-9k ohms neck, 13-14k bridge) that deliver a thick, aggressive midrange without excessive compression. The 498T bridge pickup is key to his tone, it's hot enough for heavy palm-muted riffing in Drop C but retains enough clarity for the clean passages and melodic runs that define SOAD's dynamic range.

Effects & Chain

Malakian's effects chain is famously minimal. His primary pedal is a Dunlop Cry Baby wah, used sparingly for filtered lead tones and specific riff textures. Beyond that, his live rig typically runs straight into the amp with little else in the signal path. Some studio tracks feature subtle chorus or flanger effects, but these are generally production choices rather than core elements of his sound. The takeaway for guitarists: SOAD's tone is built on tuning, picking dynamics, and amp gain, not pedal stacking. A good guitar into a good amp in Drop C gets you 90% of the way there.

Recommended Gear

Gibson SG Standard
Guitar

Gibson SG Standard

Daron Malakian's signature guitar for SOAD's classic era, the SG's bright midrange cuts through Drop C tuning without muddiness while its lightweight body delivers the aggressive, cutting tone on Toxicity. The dual humbuckers provide thick saturation for heavy riffs while maintaining clarity for melodic passages.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The JCM800 would deliver the tight, focused high-gain crunch that defined early SOAD, though Malakian favored the JCM900 for its superior midrange bite to cut through Serj's vocals and the band's dense arrangements.

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier
Amp

Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier

Malakian uses this amp to thicken SOAD's low-end on select studio tracks and heavier passages, adding additional bottom-end depth to the Marshall's midrange focus while maintaining the clarity needed for palm-muted riffing in Drop C.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

Malakian's sole primary effects pedal, the Cry Baby adds filtered lead textures and specific riff coloration to SOAD's sound while staying minimal, keeping the focus on the guitar, amp gain, and Drop C tuning that defines their signature tone.

How to Practice System Of A Down on GuitarZone

Every System Of A Down song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Chop Suey! - Guitar CoverPractice Chop Suey! - Guitar LessonPractice Aerials - Guitar Lesson