The band has sold over 12 million records worldwide, while two of their singles, "Aerials" and "Hypnotize", reached number one on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart.

The band hired Shavo Odadjian (another Rose and Alex Pilibos alumnus) as manager, although he eventually joined Soil on second guitar.

[4] The word "victims" was changed to "system" because Odadjian believed that it would appeal to a much wider audience and also because the group wanted their records to be alphabetically shelved closer to their musical heroes, Slayer.

[5] Odadjian switched from guitar to bass and passed on his managerial duties to Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and its founder David "Beno" Benveniste.

Shortly after the event, System of a Down made what is known as Untitled 1995 Demo Tape, which was not commercially released, but eventually appeared on file-sharing networks around the time of the band's success with Toxicity about six years later.

In mid-1997, drummer Khachaturian left the band because of a hand injury (he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan).

After playing at notable Hollywood clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go and Viper Room, the band caught attention of producer Rick Rubin, who asked them to keep in touch.

They enjoyed moderate success as their first singles "Sugar" and "Spiders" became radio favorites and the music videos for both songs were frequently aired on MTV.

Fans waited for more than an hour for the group to appear, but when a banner hanging at the back of the stage that read "System of a Down" was removed by security, the audience rushed the stage, destroying all the band's touring gear (approximately $30,000 worth of equipment) and began to riot, throwing rocks at police, breaking windows, and knocking over portable toilets.

The band's manager, David "Beno" Benveniste, later said that the riot could have been avoided if the group had been permitted to perform or had they been allowed to make a statement at the concert regarding the cancellation.

"; the song was taken off the radio as it contained politically sensitive lyrics according to the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum at the time such as "I don't think you trust in my self-righteous suicide".

Following a performance in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Odadjian was allegedly harassed, ethnically intimidated, and was physically assaulted by security guards backstage, who then dragged him out of the venue.

Following the album's release, the band toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada with The Mars Volta and Bad Acid Trip supporting.

System of a Down's song "Lonely Day" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance in the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007 but lost to "Woman" by Wolfmother.

Additionally in 2006, concert footage and interviews with the band concerning the importance of helping create awareness and recognition of the Armenian genocide were featured in the film Screamers, directed by Carla Garapedian.

Odadjian pursued his project with RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, a hip-hop group named AcHoZeN, worked on his urSESSION website/record label and performed as a member of funk legend George Clinton's backing band.

On November 29, 2010, following several weeks of Internet rumors, System of a Down officially announced that they would be reuniting for a string of large European festival dates in June 2011.

[32] In a November 2016 interview with Kerrang!, drummer John Dolmayan revealed that System of a Down was working on more than a dozen songs for their follow-up to the Mezmerize and Hypnotize albums.

He also said that Malakian and Tankian have visual differences on what the album should sound like, and that the band's inner tension had been building far longer than fans would be aware, despite having love and respect for one another nonetheless.

[40] He would later say that there was no extant conflict between the members, expressing confidence that System of a Down would eventually record a new album and claimed that they have material written that would be their best to date.

[42] Malakian explained that there was a mixture between the matter of different creative perspectives for the band's hesitation to record a new studio album and the lack of desire to tour.

[45] Despite System of a Down's ability to perform live, Odadjian expressed disappointment at their inability to record new music, explaining that there has been new material written by the other members in the form of a possible new album.

[47] Dolmayan had started in 2014 a Kickstarter to fund a cover project, titled "These Grey Men", alongside friend James Hazley.

We tried to get together multiple times to make an album, but there were certain rules set in place that made it difficult to do so and maintain the integrity of what System of a Down stood for."

[70] "Prison Song" criticizes the War on Drugs[73] whereas Rolling Stone describes "Roulette" as a "scared, wounded love letter".

[75] Commenting on the track "I-E-A-I-A-I-O", drummer John Dolmayan said it was inspired by an encounter he had with Knight Rider's actor David Hasselhoff in a liquor store in Los Angeles when he was around 12.

[76] On Mezmerize, "Cigaro" makes explicit references to phallic imagery[77] and bureaucracy[71] while "Violent Pornography" harshly views television[77] and degradation of women.

"[116] System of a Down's influences include Middle Eastern music,[92] Rush,[121] Ozzy Osbourne,[115][92] Black Sabbath,[122] Led Zeppelin,[122] Def Leppard,[123] Scorpions,[123] Morbid Angel,[123] Death,[123] Obituary,[123] Eazy-E,[123] N.W.A,[123] Run-DMC,[123] Umm Kulthum,[123] Abdel Halim Hafez,[123] The Kinks,[123] the Bee Gees,[123] Grateful Dead,[123] The Beatles,[124] Red Hot Chili Peppers,[122] Dead Kennedys,[125] Bauhaus,[126] Depeche Mode,[126] New Order,[126] Radiohead,[126] Metallica,[127] Miles Davis,[127] Alice in Chains,[128] Iron Maiden,[128] Bad Brains,[125] Slayer,[92][129] Van Halen,[130] and Kiss.

[138] Tankian revealed in an interview (on covers of Chop Suey) with Stereogum: "One of my favorite ones is Jack Black’s, when he just kind of makes shit up, and he’s so great. "

listed ten bands who (in their view) wouldn't exist without System of a Down: Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Maximum the Hormone, Portrayal of Guilt, Beartooth, Bad Acid Trip, AC×DC, American Standards, Avenged Sevenfold, Tesseract, and Viza.