Chop Suey!
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Template:Infobox Single "Chop Suey!" is the first single from System of a Down's second album Toxicity. The single was released in August 2001. The song's working title was "Suicide"; the band members claim the change was not caused by pressure from their record company. The words "We're rolling 'Suicide.'" can still be heard faintly in the final cut's opening seconds. (This is cut in the music video for the song; it fades in during the guitar intro)
The album it appears on, Toxicity, was #1 on the charts during the week of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the controversy surrounding the popular single at the time led to Clear Channel Radio temporarily removing the song from its stations' playlists.
The song has been parodied and covered several times. Tenacious D, in several of their live shows, performed a gibberish version of the song and then suggested that the lyrics sound deep but mean nothing. "Weird Al" Yankovic included the song in his "Angry White Boy Polka" medley. Avril Lavigne covered the song during one of her concerts. Richard Cheese parodied the song in his album Tuxicity. ApologetiX parodied the song as "Downer of a Sister" on their album "Adam Up." Parokya ni Edgar also parodied this song entitled "The Ordertaker" in their new album "Halina sa Parokya". It's about an angry customer at a restaurant that sells nothing.
Many interpretations of the lyrics exist. One says that people are wrongly regarded differently depending on how they die. Another says that it is based on a poem about the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century (the band members are Armenian). One also says that it is about an abusive father of one of the band members. In an interview, Daron Malakian is quoted to have said: "The song is about how when people die, they will be regarded differently depending on the way they pass. Like, if I were to die from a drugs overdose, everyone would say I deserved it because I abused drugs, hence the line 'Angels deserve to die'." While another theory suggests that the songs lyrics refer to the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth and imply that it was of no relevancy and so is faith in it hence the words "Trust in my self righteous suicide" and suggest that Jesus expected a flock of angels to come down from heaven and take his place hence "I cry when angels deserve to die" and "...why have you forsaken me?" although there is no evidence in any of the gospels that Jesus actually believed this.
In the lyrics, there are references made on the last words pronounced by Jesus of Nazareth before his death on the cross. Both Gospel of John (“Father into your hands I commend my spirit”) and the synoptic gospels (“Why have you forsaken me?”) are referenced.
The video contains footage from 2 live concerts, one of which features all of them except Serj shirtless. A point in the video shows Serj eating chop suey.
The track also earned the band its first Grammy nomination.
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