Responsible for creating some of the most raging, righteous musical eruptions of
the 1990s, System of a Down smashed together hardcore punk, jazz, middle-Eastern
and death metal influences as they grew from Los Angeles' underground rock scene
to international infamy. Front man Serj Tankian's grandparents fled Armenia
during the genocide inflicted by the Ottoman Empire, and he was born in Beirut,
Lebanon before moving to America at the age of seven when civil war broke out.
Tankian's father was a musician who encouraged his love of music and, while
studying at California State Uni...