SYSTEM OF A DOWN: North American Headlining Shows Announced

SYSTEM OF A DOWN has scheduled the following North American headlining shows:

May 10 - Edmonton, AL - Rexall Place
May 12 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
May 13 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena
May 15 - Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre
May 18 - Denver, CO - Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
May 19 - Albuquerque, NM - Journal Pavilion
May 22 - Las Vegas, NV - The Pear

GOGOL BORDELLO will also appear on the bill as "special guests."

SYSTEM OF A DOWN officially announced its return on November 29, 2010, with the band confirming that it will headline or co-headline several prominent European festivals this summer. A dozen or so gigs across Europe have been announced so far.

Bassist Shavo Odadjian told The Pulse of Radio a while back that he could never envision SYSTEM OF A DOWN going away permanently. "We're brothers, man, we'll take bullets for each other," he said. "So it's like, you kind of miss each other after a while and you, one guy makes the first move, then another starts making phone calls....this is a juggernaut, man. SYSTEM OF A DOWN is my lifeline. It'll never go away. We could not make a record for 10 years — that's not gonna happen, but I'm just saying we could — and we'll come back strong."

Odadjian hinted in a 2010 interview that financial problems and creative differences led the band to take a break and prevent a permanent split.

There is no word yet on whether SYSTEM plans to record a new album.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN went on hiatus in late 2006 after touring behind its two 2005 albums, "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize". All four members of the group expressed a desire to work on separate projects.

Singer Serj Tankian has issued two solo albums, while guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan launched a short-lived band called SCARS ON BROADWAY in 2008. Odadjian worked on a project with RZA from the WU-TANG CLAN called ACHOZEN, but no music from that has surfaced.