SerArt: Serart : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Three million albums sold entitles you to a bit of eccentricity. So, for his first project after System of a Down's 2001 smash Toxicity, lead singer Serj Tankian teamed up with noted folk artist Arto Tunc Boyaciyan to form Serart, a meandering experimental side project that honors their shared Armenian roots. Tankian's signature quavering vocals dominate "Leave Melody Counting Fear" and "Claustrophobia," but the arrangements -- splashes of drum-and-bass, multilayered strings, submergent atmospheric effects -- are far more subtle than System's. Tankian's tracks are a bit more aggressive than Boyaciyan's, some of which are nothing more than quick meditations on a theme. Nevertheless, they're just as potent. On "Love Is the Peace," Boyaciyan begins with gunfire, interrupts it with devotional singing, then switches into a jarring silence.

JON CARAMANCIA
(RS 926, July 10, 2003)