SYSTEM OF A DOWN Guitarist Says Some Of The Group's New Songs Are 'Faster' Than Ever Before

SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist Daron Malakian recently told MTV.com that some of the new tracks he has composed for the group's follow-up to 2001's "Toxicity" are faster than most of the band's past output, and the Eastern influences are even more pronounced than before.

"It's melodic in some ways and it's heavy, but a lot of stuff happens in between the heavy," Malakian said. "It's not gonna sound like any of our records. We've had a lot of time off, and I've had a lot of time to rethink our sound and make some changes.

"Our older riffs had more of a 'chugga-chugga' sound," he said. "This stuff is more notey and melodic in an Eastern type of way. So this time I've actually put those kinds of vibes within a lot of heavy stuff."

SYSTEM OF A DOWN plan on spending about sic months working on Malakian's material before entering the studio to record, he said. "I'm sure the rest of the guys have a lot of ideas that they've been working on that they're gonna bring in. They'll add their flavors and we'll blend it all together. That's what makes it SYSTEM."