Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian has pulled back from the ambitious but failed orchestral rock of Elect the Dead Symphony, but without returning to the serrated metal of System of a Down. With Imperfect Harmonies, the multi-instrumentalist and singer pushes into new territory on an album of turbo-charged techno music. Tankian’s wall-of-sound, ready-for-the-rave electornica, alternating with softer, often jazz-accented passages, forms an album whose orchestrations for guitars, synthesizers and beats deserves to be heard as one piece. Linking SOD and Tankian’s solo endeavors are the heartfelt agony of his vocals and his pointed socio-political lyrics with occasionally startling images. Tankian is angryand rightly soabout a world imploding under the weight of greed and ignorance. His music dramatizes the apocalypse.