System of a Down fires double shot

08/21/05 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
BY ROBERT HICKS
SPECIAL TO THE DAILY RECORD

System of a Down's bassist, Shavo Odadjian, is the foundation that holds together all the seemingly disjointed parts in the Los Angeles band's eclectic music.
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[...] the band's music has defied the odds and transformed these four Armenian-American bohemians into multi-platinum rock stars.
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Odadjian, 32, is the only band member who was born in Armenia. His grandfather was placed in an American orphanage in Greece until he matured and moved back to Armenia. From his grandfather and his parents, he learned about the Armenian genocide at the hand of the Turks in the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Two of the band's songs deal with the ongoing political issues concerning the Turkish government's failure to recognize officially the Armenian genocide. One song is "Pluck" from the band's 1998 self-titled debut CD. The other is a new song called "Holy Mountain" from the forthcoming "Hypnotize" CD.

"It talks about the fact that we have this mountain range that is an historical landmark for Armenians. It was taken over by the Turks. The reason why they are holy is because in the Bible, Noah's ark landed on those mountains," he said of Mount Ararat and Mount Masis on the border of Turkey and Armenia.
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.