See System of a Down and Korn at MetLife stadium on Wednesday, August 27th and Thursday, August 28th, 2025!
Formed in Glendale, California in 1994, the Armenian American band System of a Down is made up of vocalist Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Adadjian, and John Dolmayan who replaced founding drummer Andy Khachaturian in 1997. After releasing a handful of demo tapes and the departure of Khachaturian, the band released “P.L.U.C.K.” their first professionally recorded song on the Hay Enk compilation album.
Shortly after, System of a Down would release their self-titled debut album in 1998. The album was met with praise from critics, with the singles “Sugar” and “Spiders” doing extremely well, due in part to their videos playing constantly on MTV. The success of the album earned them an opening slot on Slayer’s Diabolus in Musica tour alongside Clutch, as well as tours with Fear Factory, Incubus, and Mr. Bungle. Later that year, they also appeared on the Chef Aid album based on the South Park episode of the same name with the track “Will They Die 4 You?”
System of a Down released their second album Toxicity in September of 2001 and would be their massive breakthrough. Toxicity was a massive success with critics and fans alike, topping both the Canadian Albums and Billboard 200 charts as well as being certified 6-time platinum by the RIAA. The album’s three singles, “Chop Suey!”, “Toxicity”, and “Aerials” are often regarded as three of the band’s biggest tracks to date, with “Chop Suey!” being considered one of the biggest and most well-known tracks in metal with nearly 1.5 billion streams on Spotify alone. Other tracks from the album include “Bounce” and “Prison Song”, two staples of their live performance.
The next year, a number of songs that were written for Toxicity but didn’t make the cut were leaked onto the internet. Following the leak, System of a Down finished up the tracks and released Steal This Album! in November of 2002. The 16-track album did extremely well, being certified platinum by the RIAA and charting well internationally.
In 2005, System of a Down released the double album Mezmerize and Hypnotize six months apart, with the first debuting at number 1 in the US as well as numerous other places around the world. Mezmerize’s lead single “B.Y.O.B.” would earn a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2006 and is one of the band’s biggest songs. The second album, Hypnotize, also debuted at number 1 in the US, becoming the fourth artist to have two studio albums debut at number 1 the same year. The second single from this album, “Lonely Day” was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance, and almost pulled a back-to-back win for the band, but did not win the award.
In Spring of 2006, System of a Down announced they would be going on a hiatus. During the hiatus, all of the members continued to be active musically before announcing their return at the end of 2010. From their return until now, the band has toured inconsistently, mostly taking festival headlining spots or one-off appearances over full tours.
One major thing that the fans have been talking about is the potential of new music, something which the band has openly talked about. Outside of two singles released in response to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, the band has stated that they don’t have the studio chemistry they feel is best for writing System of a Down music. Whether it’s being unsure what direction or tone the album should take, or simply not being in the right headspace to write, the band has not found a starting point to work on album number six. While the sixth album is still a myth, the band still loves playing shows together and will be hitting the East Coast for the first time since August of 2012.
If you haven’t listened to Korn—you’re missing out on some amazing heavy music, with tracks like “Freak On a Leash” (1998) and “Coming Undone” (2005), and with the amount of music they have, it’s almost hard to say you haven’t listened to anything they’ve put out. Since the band’s conception in 1993, Korn has curated an extensive discography and quite the name for themselves. Drawing inspiration from bands like Pantera, Nine Inch Nails, and Alice in Chains, the band helped to solidify and pioneer the genre of nu-metal, and led it to the mainstream media in the 90’s. Their signature sound came from compiling brash musicality with conventional hip-hop lyrics about alienation and loneliness.
The band hails from Bakersfield, California—after a previous band known as L.A.P.D. had disbanded, Korn was formed with 3 remaining members. Korn’s is currently comprised of five members, including founders, James “Munky” Shaffer, Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, Brian “Head” Welch, and later additions, Ray Luzier and Jonathan Davis.
Korn’s rise to success really proceeded their self-titled, debut album in 1994, as previously mentioned, it broke ground for a new genre, so it was considered a commercial success. But looking where they’ve come, the three albums that came after are still some of the top selling metal albums to date, including Life is Peachy (1996), Follow the Leader (1998), and Issues (1999), all making it within the top 5 of the Billboard 200. Korn’s accomplishments don’t stop there, their first 7 studio albums also hit platinum at least once, with Follow the Leader hitting 5x Platinum Certified by RIAA, and have won 88 awards from Grammys and MTV to Billboard.
The legacy Korn will leave impacts anyone who has listened to their music. They have and will continue to inspire many to branch out to try and create something new, including artists and bands that formed like Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit, and System of the Down. And well-known existing bands like Slipknot and Machine Head took from what Korn had created with nu-metal and assisted in making the genre popular.
Tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.com.
Click HERE to check out our gallery from when Iron Maiden rocked the Wells Fargo Center!
