Elect the Dead is the debut album by rock musician Serj Tankian, lead singer and founding member of Armenian-American metal band System of a Down. It was released on October 22, 2007. Alongside Tankian appears Armenian-American coloratura Ani Maldjian, drummers John Dolmayan (System of a Down) and Brain (Primus, Guns N' Roses), Dan Monti on guitars, as well as a string section featuring Antonio Pontarelli.[12]
| Elect the Dead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 22, 2007 | |||
| Recorded | Serjical Strike Dungeons, The Pass (Los Angeles) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:03 | |||
| Label | Serjical Strike, Reprise | |||
| Producer | Serj Tankian | |||
| Serj Tankian chronology | ||||
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| Serj Tankian studio album chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
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| Special edition cover | ||||
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| Singles from Elect the Dead | ||||
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| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (68%)[6] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AbsolutePunk | (69%)[7] |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Billboard | (favorable)[8] |
| Robert Christgau |  [9] |
| IGN | (7.1/10)[10] |
| Kerrang! | |
| Music Emissions |  [11] |
| NME |   (October 27, 2007, p.39) |
| Rolling Stone | |
| The Guardian | [4] |
Marketing
The initial single from the album was a two-track promo including "Empty Walls" and "The Unthinking Majority", released on September 10, 2007. Tankian immediately appeared on MTV's "You Rock the Deuce" program. Meanwhile, a music video of "Feed Us" was released in Sweden[13] and on UK MTV.[14]The album was released October 22, 2007 and opened at number 4 with 66,000 US units sold according to the Billboard 200 trade listing.[15] By September 2010, the album had sold 319,000 copies total.[16]
Music videos of the album's songs were each filmed by discrete directors. Tankian revealed: "I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of my work. They were asked not to write treatments and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been overwhelmingly amazing".[17] Initially some videos were released as limited edition premiums. All videos were later freely offered on Tankian's website and his YouTube channel. Some of these "official videos" were alternate versions released one version at a time, suggesting incrementally evolving narrative.
Collectible versions of the album include an instrumental disc offered by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records, and the "final master" from Reprise intended for specific journalists and reviewers. That embargoed disc was labeled "Smart Talk" [a coded reference to the artist's own name].[18] Previously an undated, un-mastered 'Smart Talk' promo featured these same 'final versions' of the songs, but the sequence of tracks ten and eleven was juxtaposed.
Production
Tankian stated that some of these songs were new, and others had developed earlier. An acoustic version of "Blue" was released on the album's special edition bonus disc. The original version appeared on System of a Down's fourth demo tape but had no other recordings of the song were known to exist.
The title track was also recorded by System of a Down during the recording sessions for Mezmerize and Hypnotize but this version remains unreleased.
It's very wide sounding — lots of different sounding instruments. The excitement I had making this record was the same excitement I had making the first System record.
An Elect the Dead tour commenced October 12, 2007 at Chicago's Vic Theater. Tankian cautioned fans this production featured a new band, Flying Cunts of Chaos (a.k.a. The F.C.C.), which was not promoting the System of a Down.
In 2009, Tankian did a symphonic tour with an orchestra in order to perform symphonic renditions of most of the songs from Elect the Dead. A recording of this tour titled Elect the Dead Symphony was released February 23, 2010 in the US.
Track listing
All tracks are written by Serj Tankian
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Empty Walls" | 3:49 |
| 2. | "The Unthinking Majority" | 3:46 |
| 3. | "Money" | 3:53 |
| 4. | "Feed Us" | 4:31 |
| 5. | "Saving Us" | 4:41 |
| 6. | "Sky Is Over" | 2:57 |
| 7. | "Baby" | 3:31 |
| 8. | "Honking Antelope" | 3:50 |
| 9. | "Lie Lie Lie" | 3:33 |
| 10. | "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" | 4:23 |
| 11. | "Beethoven's Cunt" | 3:13 |
| 12. | "Elect the Dead" | 2:54 |
| Total length: | 45:03 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 13. | "The Reverend King" | 2:49 |
| Total length: | 47:52 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Blue" | 2:45 |
| 2. | "Empty Walls" (Acoustic) | 3:46 |
| 3. | "Feed Us" (Acoustic) | 4:21 |
| 4. | "Falling Stars" | 3:05 |
| Total length: | 14:17 | |
Personnel
- All songs written & performed by Serj Tankian (guitars, bass, piano, vocals, synthesizers, drum programming, melodica, bells)
- All songs recorded at Serjical Strike Studios
- Produced by Serj Tankian
- Engineered by Dan Monti & Serj Tankian
- Mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Music Studios in New York City
- A&R Craig Aaronson & George Tonikian
- Original artwork provided by Sako Shahinian
- Album packaging design by Sako Shahinian
- Digipack album packaging design by Keith Aazami
- Photography by Greg Watermann
Charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[19] | 19 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[20] | 5 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] | 64 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] | 50 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard)[23] | 4 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] | 45 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[25] | 12 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[26] | 23 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] | 10 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[28] | 43 |
| Japanese Album Charts (Oricon)[29] | 55 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[30] | 14 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[31] | 33 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[32] | 36 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[33] | 11 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[34] | 26 |
| US Billboard 200[35] | 4 |