As you are reading this on September 4th, System Of A Down's sophomore LP Toxicity will turn 25, with the landmark album having been released on September 4th, 2001 via American Recordings. To mark the occasion, the band are offering an exclusive vinyl printing of the record, which will ship with a 7" single of the song "Johnny," which is a rarity among the initial printings of the record.
According to the webstore's listing for the bundle:
Celebrating 25 years of Toxicity with our anniversary edition D2C vinyl (variant 1 of 2). Featuring newly enhanced cover artwork with a matte background, embossed lettering, and a foil album title. This release includes the original album plus a 7-inch single of the track "Johnny," previously only available as a bonus track on rare editions from 2001. The B-side of the 7-inch features a custom etched design. Also included is a custom double-sided poster, and an update to the packaging to correctly identify the hidden closing track as "Der Voghormia” (mistakenly referred to as “Arto”). “Der Voghormia” is a spiritual Armenian hymn, which translates to “Lord Have Mercy.” The piece is often used to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, but it’s also ritualistically performed during times of grief and remembrance. When we, as System Of A Down, perform the song live, we do it to remember the 1.5 million souls who lost their lives in 1915.
Order the 25th anniversary printing and associated merch over at the System Of A Down webstore.
To further mark the occasion, the band's socials feature a video with footage from the ill-fated pre-release free concert in Hollywood the night before Toxicity released, which ended in a riot that required a police presence to control.
For those who weren't there to remember what happened, a YouTube archivist known as The Schizo Archives has posted up a video of the ABC7 news report on the riot:
