SERJ TANKIAN

Serj Tankian is obviously best known for fronting nu-metal kingpins SYSTEM OF A DOWN, but his solo music is very experimental and filled with a creative, one-of-a-kind sound that stands apart from his past. Tankian has a prolific solo career, having released his debut solo album, "Elect the Dead", in 2007 and several collections since.

Tankian digs deep into troublesome themes and discussions on world and cultural issues, so it should come as no surprise that this year's "Foundations" EP is packed with these ideals. One of the album's singles and biggest moments comes with "Justice Will Shine On", a powerful, hammering metal song in which Tankian sings and laments about the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide, which his grandparents witnessed. He takes a very personal approach in singing about the Armenian Genocide, and the lyrics are a plea directly to his grandparents to share with him their struggles and what atrocities they witnessed. "Justice Will Shine On" is the kind of moving song that is difficult to listen to without feeling something in your heart and soul.

As with "Justice Will Shine On", the rest of the "Foundations" EP also brings weighty motifs. Another single, "A.F. Day", reflects an angry, frustrated and anti-authoritarian attitude towards conformity. Tankian has said he wrote the song in the early days of SOAD, but they never released it as a band. While many of Tankian's solo songs did start as SOAD tracks, they have a different character and sound here as solo material.

Of the five-songs on the EP, "Life's Revengeful Son" is the song that sounds most like something you'd hear from Tankian's SOAD work. The song features longing, acoustic guitar parts that crash into a soaring chorus and Tankian's dissonant harmonies. "Life's Revengeful Son" sounds like it could be played alongside "Toxicity" or "Chop Suey!" on a playlist. Elsewhere, "Cartoon Buyer" is the closest thing to a ballad that you'll find, as it switches between quiet, ballad-like verses and heavier choruses. "Appropriations" shows off Tankian's more operatic side, which SOAD fans should find familiar.

The beauty of the "Foundations" EP is that it doesn't diverge too much from what you might expect from a SOAD record, but it still sounds uniquely Tankian's. In the future, it would be interesting for Tankian to stretch further from SOAD, but either way, this EP shows why Tankian is considered one of his generation's great songwriters.