Friday 7/3: SASAMI—"Toxicity" (System of a Down cover)
Today, we share our thoughts on SASAMI's acoustic cover of System of a Down's "Toxicity"
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on SASAMI's acoustic cover of System of a Down's "Toxicity"
SASAMI—"Toxicity”(System of a Down cover)
Eli Enis:
Yesterday, we wrote about Rina Sawayama’s cover of Lady Gaga’s “Dance In The Dark”, and my take was that Sawayama’s radical reinvention felt lackluster compared to the original. Today, we’re writing about L.A. songwriter SASAMI’s cover of System of a Down’s legendary “Toxicity”, and I think it’s a far more effective example of a 180-degree cover. On her excellent 2019 debut, SASAMI slithered in the cracks between icy shoegaze, brisk post-punk, and balmy indie-rock. but here she inverts this anthemic metal banger into a stark acoustic tune without sacrificing any of its emotional intensity. SOAD frontman Serj Tankian has always sung with an operatic delivery, and in the post-SOAD years he’s taken to composing soundtracks and writing increasingly orchestral music under his own name. SASAMI is a classically trained french horn player and a working session musician, so it actually makes sense that she’d be able to speak Tankian’s musical language and pare his boisterous headbanger down to its barest elements, revealing a tune that’s honestly quite beautiful and poignant at its core. It’s one of those magical covers that works way better than you think it will
Eric Bennett:
When this was released yesterday, I saw a lot of people who have a nostalgic fondness for System of a Down being wowed by it. I have to say, it’s really fun to have the perspective of someone who has no connection to the original song, and in fact more of a connection to SASAMI. She’s doing such a stripped-down job here that if I had this playing in the background you could pretty easily convince me this is just a B-side from her that I’d missed. The difference is so stark, and Sasami’s delivery is hauntingly deadpan, but there’s raw emotion bubbling under it. It’s a tone she uses sparingly on her debut, but it wins me over every time. I’ve heard “Toxicity” maybe once that I can recall, so for me, I get to think of this as just a pretty song.