Serj Tankian
Released July 10, 2012
Serjical Strike/Reprise
1. Cornucopia
2. Figure It Out
3. Ching Chime
4. Butterfly
5. Harakiri
6. Occupied Tears
7. Deafening Silence
8. Forget Me Knot
9. Reality TV
10. Uneducated Democracy
11. Weave On
Harakiri, Serj's latest solo album, was released in July of 2012 via Reprise Records/Serjical Strike and is the follow up to 2010’s critically acclaimed Imperfect Harmonies. The album is the third solo release from the System Of A Down front man. As with 2007’s Elect the Dead and Imperfect Harmonies, Serj produced Harakiri himself at his home studio in Los Angeles. He tried to approach writing a little differently this time around “I used the Apple iPad as a songwriting instrument to sketch out three of the songs on the record” explains Serj. “We must trick ourselves into writing in different ways to get unexpected results.” The album also featureS performances by Serj’s touring band, The F.C.C. - Dan Monti on guitar, Mario Pagliarulo on bass, and Troy Zeigler on drums. Dan Monti is also co-mixing and co-engineering the album with Serj. The album is mastered by Vlado Meller (Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West)
The end result is an album that has more of a direct rock sound than it's predecessor Imperfect Harmonies, yet finds a way to infuse new layers of complexity that comes with a more mature songwriter. Harakiri includes it's share of politically and socially charged lyrics and themes expressed in hard hitting songs "Occupied Tears", "Uneducated Democracy", "Reality TV", "Figure It Out" and the albums title track itself.
Serj himself uses each of the song titles to describe Harakiri:
“The Cornucopia of love/hate affairs with Gaia have made us scream "Fuck! Let's Figure It Out! CEOs are the disease.” Where abusive capitalism's only fate is human/environmental devastation. The Ching Chime, diminutive drama of a gangsta Butterfly revealed that humanity's tears actually outweigh yearly rainfall on the planet. We have witnessed Harakiri on a grand scale tearing out the Occupied Tears of victims preyed on by victims turned aggressors creating a Deafening Silence through which we hear a voice plead, "Forget Me Knot, my child.” Reality TV has become the searing indictment of a society best described as the Uneducated Democracy. The daughters of the evolution Weave On with blood dripping down their guilty hands onto the flag as the word republic is replaced by empire.” – Serj Tankian
