Twenty-five years ago, inside a New York recording studio, System of a Down was mixing an unreleased song called “Chop Suey!” for the band’s second album, “Toxicity.” As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in. “What is that?” David “Beno” Benveniste remembers them asking.
Benveniste, the band’s longtime manager, was in the room with mixer Andy Wallace when he realized they had something special. “It was a moment in time that was in slow motion,” Benveniste said. “I knew in my heart and in my soul, without even thinking about it. I felt it vibrationally. I knew that song was giant. I knew it.”
Twenty-five years later, System of a Down is celebrating “Toxicity “ not with an anniversary concert, but with a weeklong exhibition at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles. Running Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, the free, all-ages exhibition will feature rare artifacts, photographs, ephemera, instruments, and other memorabilia from the album’s era.
Designer Bryan Ray Turcotte sits in an anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“Toxicity’ was released Sept. 4, 2001, exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 222,000 copies in its first week, and produced three of the band’s defining songs: “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” and “Chop Suey!” Twenty-five years later, “Chop Suey!” has surpassed 2.1 billion streams on Spotify, while its official music video has more than 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Blending thrash metal, alternative rock, punk, and Armenian musical influences, “Toxicity” expanded the sound System of a Down had established on its debut without sacrificing the band’s identity. Its success propelled the L.A. group from an emerging heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.
Despite the massive success of “Toxicity,” guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian remembers its beginnings much more modestly. “When I was writing the material and the songs for that album, I was still living with my parents,” Malakian said. “I remember being in the room that I grew up in and writing those songs late at night in my room. That was our second album, so I knew it was important for it not to be the same as our first album, but still keep the band’s identity. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I felt that I needed to do something musically and push the band in a direction that sounded like we grew from the first record.”
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Although System of a Down is often grouped with the nu metal bands that dominated heavy music at the time, including Korn and Limp Bizkit, Malakian never saw the band as fitting neatly into any genre.
“We’ve never done anything to fit a genre. We never thought, ‘Everybody’s doing this, we’ve got to do this.’ In fact, we were always the guys who thought, if everyone’s doing this, we should probably do the opposite,” he said.
The timing of the album’s release is also pivotal to its history. The week “Toxicity” came out would prove just as chaotic as the music itself.
To celebrate the album, System of a Down planned a free show in a Hollywood parking lot on Sept. 3, 2001, the night before “Toxicity” was released. But the concert never happened. After an estimated 10,000 fans packed the surrounding area, police and fire officials determined it was unsafe for the band to perform. The cancellation quickly turned into an infamous riot.
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Malakian remembers being taken away from the concert site and watching coverage of the riot from a nearby hotel. He was disturbed by images of fans being hit with rubber bullets and equipment being stolen, but also realized the band’s trajectory had suddenly changed. “The thought I had in my head was, ‘We’re going to be really popular after this,’” Malakian said.
The circumstances surrounding the release of “Toxicity” became even more surreal one week later, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the country and altered the way some listeners interpreted the album. “Chop Suey!” was among the songs pulled from some radio playlists in the aftermath of the attacks, while listeners began connecting lyrics written months earlier to the tragedy.
“Certain lyrics made people talk like we had written them about 9/11, but there’s no way they could have been about 9/11 unless we were prophets of some kind,” Malakian said.
Headphones, boombox and SOAD original cassettes on display at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But a quarter-century later, the album’s impact remains as strong as ever. Released during one of the most chaotic periods in recent history, “Toxicity” continues to resonate with fans, including many who weren’t even born when it came out.
For Beyond the Streets founder Roger Gastman, that staying power is exactly what the exhibition is meant to capture. “It’s not about having a bunch of people sit around and talk about what was,” Gastman said. “It’s still about what is now.”
Gastman said the free exhibition is designed to give visitors a sense of the album’s history and lasting impact through a wide range of artifacts, ephemera and memorabilia from the era, including backstage passes, posters, flyers, clothing, recording materials and instruments connected to the album. He said the goal was to create an experience that rewards both casual visitors and longtime fans.
Posters and articles about System of a Down on display at the “Toxicity” exhibit
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“You could breeze through it in five minutes. You could spend two hours there,” Gastman said. “There’s a lot of detail. There’s a lot of care. And there are a good amount of surprises.”
Benveniste summed up the album’s longevity simply: “Greatness has no shelf life.” But for Malakian, that staying power comes from the band itself.
“I think that honesty in System of a Down and that honesty in the songwriting and the lyrics and the band still speaks to people,” he said. “I think that’s why it probably still holds up.”
The free all-ages exhibition runs Oct. 13 through Oct. 18 at Beyond the Streets, 434 N. La Brea Ave. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; early arrival is suggested.
Twenty-five years ago, inside a New York recording studio, System of a Down was mixing an unreleased song called “Chop Suey!” for the band’s second album, “Toxicity.” As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in. “What is that?” David “Beno” Benveniste remembers them asking.
Benveniste, the band’s longtime manager, was in the room with mixer Andy Wallace when he realized they had something special. “It was a moment in time that was in slow motion,” Benveniste said. “I knew in my heart and in my soul, without even thinking about it. I felt it vibrationally. I knew that song was giant. I knew it.”
Twenty-five years later, System of a Down is celebrating “Toxicity “ not with an anniversary concert, but with a weeklong exhibition at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles. Running Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, the free, all-ages exhibition will feature rare artifacts, photographs, ephemera, instruments, and other memorabilia from the album’s era.
Designer Bryan Ray Turcotte sits in an anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“Toxicity’ was released Sept. 4, 2001, exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 222,000 copies in its first week, and produced three of the band’s defining songs: “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” and “Chop Suey!” Twenty-five years later, “Chop Suey!” has surpassed 2.1 billion streams on Spotify, while its official music video has more than 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Blending thrash metal, alternative rock, punk, and Armenian musical influences, “Toxicity” expanded the sound System of a Down had established on its debut without sacrificing the band’s identity. Its success propelled the L.A. group from an emerging heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.
Despite the massive success of “Toxicity,” guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian remembers its beginnings much more modestly. “When I was writing the material and the songs for that album, I was still living with my parents,” Malakian said. “I remember being in the room that I grew up in and writing those songs late at night in my room. That was our second album, so I knew it was important for it not to be the same as our first album, but still keep the band’s identity. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I felt that I needed to do something musically and push the band in a direction that sounded like we grew from the first record.”
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Although System of a Down is often grouped with the nu metal bands that dominated heavy music at the time, including Korn and Limp Bizkit, Malakian never saw the band as fitting neatly into any genre.
“We’ve never done anything to fit a genre. We never thought, ‘Everybody’s doing this, we’ve got to do this.’ In fact, we were always the guys who thought, if everyone’s doing this, we should probably do the opposite,” he said.
The timing of the album’s release is also pivotal to its history. The week “Toxicity” came out would prove just as chaotic as the music itself.
To celebrate the album, System of a Down planned a free show in a Hollywood parking lot on Sept. 3, 2001, the night before “Toxicity” was released. But the concert never happened. After an estimated 10,000 fans packed the surrounding area, police and fire officials determined it was unsafe for the band to perform. The cancellation quickly turned into an infamous riot.
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Malakian remembers being taken away from the concert site and watching coverage of the riot from a nearby hotel. He was disturbed by images of fans being hit with rubber bullets and equipment being stolen, but also realized the band’s trajectory had suddenly changed. “The thought I had in my head was, ‘We’re going to be really popular after this,’” Malakian said.
The circumstances surrounding the release of “Toxicity” became even more surreal one week later, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the country and altered the way some listeners interpreted the album. “Chop Suey!” was among the songs pulled from some radio playlists in the aftermath of the attacks, while listeners began connecting lyrics written months earlier to the tragedy.
“Certain lyrics made people talk like we had written them about 9/11, but there’s no way they could have been about 9/11 unless we were prophets of some kind,” Malakian said.
Headphones, boombox and SOAD original cassettes on display at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But a quarter-century later, the album’s impact remains as strong as ever. Released during one of the most chaotic periods in recent history, “Toxicity” continues to resonate with fans, including many who weren’t even born when it came out.
For Beyond the Streets founder Roger Gastman, that staying power is exactly what the exhibition is meant to capture. “It’s not about having a bunch of people sit around and talk about what was,” Gastman said. “It’s still about what is now.”
Gastman said the free exhibition is designed to give visitors a sense of the album’s history and lasting impact through a wide range of artifacts, ephemera and memorabilia from the era, including backstage passes, posters, flyers, clothing, recording materials and instruments connected to the album. He said the goal was to create an experience that rewards both casual visitors and longtime fans.
Posters and articles about System of a Down on display at the “Toxicity” exhibit
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“You could breeze through it in five minutes. You could spend two hours there,” Gastman said. “There’s a lot of detail. There’s a lot of care. And there are a good amount of surprises.”
Benveniste summed up the album’s longevity simply: “Greatness has no shelf life.” But for Malakian, that staying power comes from the band itself.
“I think that honesty in System of a Down and that honesty in the songwriting and the lyrics and the band still speaks to people,” he said. “I think that’s why it probably still holds up.”
The free all-ages exhibition runs Oct. 13 through Oct. 18 at Beyond the Streets, 434 N. La Brea Ave. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; early arrival is suggested.
Twenty-five years ago, inside a New York recording studio, System of a Down was mixing an unreleased song called “Chop Suey!” for the band’s second album, “Toxicity.” As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in. “What is that?” David “Beno” Benveniste remembers them asking.
Benveniste, the band’s longtime manager, was in the room with mixer Andy Wallace when he realized they had something special. “It was a moment in time that was in slow motion,” Benveniste said. “I knew in my heart and in my soul, without even thinking about it. I felt it vibrationally. I knew that song was giant. I knew it.”
Twenty-five years later, System of a Down is celebrating “Toxicity “ not with an anniversary concert, but with a weeklong exhibition at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles. Running Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, the free, all-ages exhibition will feature rare artifacts, photographs, ephemera, instruments, and other memorabilia from the album’s era.
Designer Bryan Ray Turcotte sits in an anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“Toxicity’ was released Sept. 4, 2001, exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 222,000 copies in its first week, and produced three of the band’s defining songs: “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” and “Chop Suey!” Twenty-five years later, “Chop Suey!” has surpassed 2.1 billion streams on Spotify, while its official music video has more than 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Blending thrash metal, alternative rock, punk, and Armenian musical influences, “Toxicity” expanded the sound System of a Down had established on its debut without sacrificing the band’s identity. Its success propelled the L.A. group from an emerging heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.
Despite the massive success of “Toxicity,” guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian remembers its beginnings much more modestly. “When I was writing the material and the songs for that album, I was still living with my parents,” Malakian said. “I remember being in the room that I grew up in and writing those songs late at night in my room. That was our second album, so I knew it was important for it not to be the same as our first album, but still keep the band’s identity. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I felt that I needed to do something musically and push the band in a direction that sounded like we grew from the first record.”
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Although System of a Down is often grouped with the nu metal bands that dominated heavy music at the time, including Korn and Limp Bizkit, Malakian never saw the band as fitting neatly into any genre.
“We’ve never done anything to fit a genre. We never thought, ‘Everybody’s doing this, we’ve got to do this.’ In fact, we were always the guys who thought, if everyone’s doing this, we should probably do the opposite,” he said.
The timing of the album’s release is also pivotal to its history. The week “Toxicity” came out would prove just as chaotic as the music itself.
To celebrate the album, System of a Down planned a free show in a Hollywood parking lot on Sept. 3, 2001, the night before “Toxicity” was released. But the concert never happened. After an estimated 10,000 fans packed the surrounding area, police and fire officials determined it was unsafe for the band to perform. The cancellation quickly turned into an infamous riot.
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Malakian remembers being taken away from the concert site and watching coverage of the riot from a nearby hotel. He was disturbed by images of fans being hit with rubber bullets and equipment being stolen, but also realized the band’s trajectory had suddenly changed. “The thought I had in my head was, ‘We’re going to be really popular after this,’” Malakian said.
The circumstances surrounding the release of “Toxicity” became even more surreal one week later, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the country and altered the way some listeners interpreted the album. “Chop Suey!” was among the songs pulled from some radio playlists in the aftermath of the attacks, while listeners began connecting lyrics written months earlier to the tragedy.
“Certain lyrics made people talk like we had written them about 9/11, but there’s no way they could have been about 9/11 unless we were prophets of some kind,” Malakian said.
Headphones, boombox and SOAD original cassettes on display at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But a quarter-century later, the album’s impact remains as strong as ever. Released during one of the most chaotic periods in recent history, “Toxicity” continues to resonate with fans, including many who weren’t even born when it came out.
For Beyond the Streets founder Roger Gastman, that staying power is exactly what the exhibition is meant to capture. “It’s not about having a bunch of people sit around and talk about what was,” Gastman said. “It’s still about what is now.”
Gastman said the free exhibition is designed to give visitors a sense of the album’s history and lasting impact through a wide range of artifacts, ephemera and memorabilia from the era, including backstage passes, posters, flyers, clothing, recording materials and instruments connected to the album. He said the goal was to create an experience that rewards both casual visitors and longtime fans.
Posters and articles about System of a Down on display at the “Toxicity” exhibit
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“You could breeze through it in five minutes. You could spend two hours there,” Gastman said. “There’s a lot of detail. There’s a lot of care. And there are a good amount of surprises.”
Benveniste summed up the album’s longevity simply: “Greatness has no shelf life.” But for Malakian, that staying power comes from the band itself.
“I think that honesty in System of a Down and that honesty in the songwriting and the lyrics and the band still speaks to people,” he said. “I think that’s why it probably still holds up.”
The free all-ages exhibition runs Oct. 13 through Oct. 18 at Beyond the Streets, 434 N. La Brea Ave. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; early arrival is suggested.
Twenty-five years ago, inside a New York recording studio, System of a Down was mixing an unreleased song called “Chop Suey!” for the band’s second album, “Toxicity.” As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in. “What is that?” David “Beno” Benveniste remembers them asking.
Benveniste, the band’s longtime manager, was in the room with mixer Andy Wallace when he realized they had something special. “It was a moment in time that was in slow motion,” Benveniste said. “I knew in my heart and in my soul, without even thinking about it. I felt it vibrationally. I knew that song was giant. I knew it.”
Twenty-five years later, System of a Down is celebrating “Toxicity “ not with an anniversary concert, but with a weeklong exhibition at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles. Running Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, the free, all-ages exhibition will feature rare artifacts, photographs, ephemera, instruments, and other memorabilia from the album’s era.
Designer Bryan Ray Turcotte sits in an anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“Toxicity’ was released Sept. 4, 2001, exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 222,000 copies in its first week, and produced three of the band’s defining songs: “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” and “Chop Suey!” Twenty-five years later, “Chop Suey!” has surpassed 2.1 billion streams on Spotify, while its official music video has more than 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Blending thrash metal, alternative rock, punk, and Armenian musical influences, “Toxicity” expanded the sound System of a Down had established on its debut without sacrificing the band’s identity. Its success propelled the L.A. group from an emerging heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.
Despite the massive success of “Toxicity,” guitarist and songwriter Daron Malakian remembers its beginnings much more modestly. “When I was writing the material and the songs for that album, I was still living with my parents,” Malakian said. “I remember being in the room that I grew up in and writing those songs late at night in my room. That was our second album, so I knew it was important for it not to be the same as our first album, but still keep the band’s identity. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders. I felt that I needed to do something musically and push the band in a direction that sounded like we grew from the first record.”
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Although System of a Down is often grouped with the nu metal bands that dominated heavy music at the time, including Korn and Limp Bizkit, Malakian never saw the band as fitting neatly into any genre.
“We’ve never done anything to fit a genre. We never thought, ‘Everybody’s doing this, we’ve got to do this.’ In fact, we were always the guys who thought, if everyone’s doing this, we should probably do the opposite,” he said.
The timing of the album’s release is also pivotal to its history. The week “Toxicity” came out would prove just as chaotic as the music itself.
To celebrate the album, System of a Down planned a free show in a Hollywood parking lot on Sept. 3, 2001, the night before “Toxicity” was released. But the concert never happened. After an estimated 10,000 fans packed the surrounding area, police and fire officials determined it was unsafe for the band to perform. The cancellation quickly turned into an infamous riot.
An anniversary exhibit for L.A. band System of a Down in honor of their seminal album, “Toxicity,” at Beyond the Streets gallery
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
Malakian remembers being taken away from the concert site and watching coverage of the riot from a nearby hotel. He was disturbed by images of fans being hit with rubber bullets and equipment being stolen, but also realized the band’s trajectory had suddenly changed. “The thought I had in my head was, ‘We’re going to be really popular after this,’” Malakian said.
The circumstances surrounding the release of “Toxicity” became even more surreal one week later, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed the country and altered the way some listeners interpreted the album. “Chop Suey!” was among the songs pulled from some radio playlists in the aftermath of the attacks, while listeners began connecting lyrics written months earlier to the tragedy.
“Certain lyrics made people talk like we had written them about 9/11, but there’s no way they could have been about 9/11 unless we were prophets of some kind,” Malakian said.
Headphones, boombox and SOAD original cassettes on display at Beyond the Streets gallery in Los Angeles on Friday, October 9, 2026.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
But a quarter-century later, the album’s impact remains as strong as ever. Released during one of the most chaotic periods in recent history, “Toxicity” continues to resonate with fans, including many who weren’t even born when it came out.
For Beyond the Streets founder Roger Gastman, that staying power is exactly what the exhibition is meant to capture. “It’s not about having a bunch of people sit around and talk about what was,” Gastman said. “It’s still about what is now.”
Gastman said the free exhibition is designed to give visitors a sense of the album’s history and lasting impact through a wide range of artifacts, ephemera and memorabilia from the era, including backstage passes, posters, flyers, clothing, recording materials and instruments connected to the album. He said the goal was to create an experience that rewards both casual visitors and longtime fans.
Posters and articles about System of a Down on display at the “Toxicity” exhibit
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
“You could breeze through it in five minutes. You could spend two hours there,” Gastman said. “There’s a lot of detail. There’s a lot of care. And there are a good amount of surprises.”
Benveniste summed up the album’s longevity simply: “Greatness has no shelf life.” But for Malakian, that staying power comes from the band itself.
“I think that honesty in System of a Down and that honesty in the songwriting and the lyrics and the band still speaks to people,” he said. “I think that’s why it probably still holds up.”
The free all-ages exhibition runs Oct. 13 through Oct. 18 at Beyond the Streets, 434 N. La Brea Ave. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; early arrival is suggested.
