In a new interview with Metal Hammer, System of a Down’s Daron Malakian spoke about the nu metal scene of the late ‘90s, and what the band thought about being lumped into that genre.
“We were lucky that there was a scene,” he said. “We were able to play, and play in front of audiences that came to see those other bands. But I don’t think anybody sounds like we did. I don’t think we felt like we didn’t belong and I don’t feel like we did belong.
“But there’s so many f*cking genres and then there are subgenres of the subgenre, it just gets lost. System Of A Down and Scars, that’s what I do. I don’t look at what other bands are doing and say, ‘Well, I’ve got to do that to fit in with those guys.’ But for some reason we fit into that whole [nu metal] thing. That’s just the time that we existed.”
He continued, praising nu metal pioneers for deciding to create something unique instead of copying the bands that influenced them:
“I’ll say one thing about the original nu metal bands – Deftones, Korn, all the ones that were the first, and add us to that list – they were all doing something unique. We were all the kids that grew up listening to Metallica and Slayer, all that f*cking thrash stuff, but we weren’t copying it. We were taking that influence and we were bringing in other things, other influences, and creating something new with that heavy sound.
“All those copy bands, I don’t give a sh*t about any of them. The ones that came out and started their own thing and did their own thing, those bands deserve credit.”
