Elect the Dead

Elect the Dead is the debut album by rock musician Serj Tankian, lead singer and founding member of Armenian-American metal band System of a Down. It was released on October 22, 2007. Alongside Tankian appears Armenian-American coloratura Ani Maldjian, drummers John Dolmayan (System of a Down) and Brain (Primus, Guns N' Roses), Dan Monti on guitars, as well as a string section featuring Antonio Pontarelli.[12]

Elect the Dead
Studio album by
Serj Tankian
ReleasedOctober 22, 2007
RecordedSerjical Strike Dungeons, The Pass (Los Angeles)
Genre
Length45:03
LabelSerjical Strike, Reprise
ProducerSerj Tankian
Serj Tankian chronology
Serart
(2003)		 Elect the Dead
(2007)		 Lie Lie Live
(2008)
Serj Tankian studio album chronology
Elect the Dead
(2007)		 Imperfect Harmonies
(2010)
Alternative covers
Alternative cover
Alternative cover
Special edition cover
Singles from Elect the Dead
  1. "The Unthinking Majority"
    Released: July 30, 2007
  2. "Empty Walls"
    Released: September 10, 2007
  3. "Lie Lie Lie"
    Released: December 24, 2007
  4. "Sky Is Over"
    Released: January 16, 2008[5]
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(68%)[6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AbsolutePunk(69%)[7]
AllMusic[3]
Billboard(favorable)[8]
Robert Christgau(dud)[9]
IGN(7.1/10)[10]
Kerrang!
Music Emissions[11]
NME (October 27, 2007, p.39)
Rolling Stone
The Guardian[4]

Marketing

The initial single from the album was a two-track promo including "Empty Walls" and "The Unthinking Majority", released on September 10, 2007. Tankian immediately appeared on MTV's "You Rock the Deuce" program. Meanwhile, a music video of "Feed Us" was released in Sweden[13] and on UK MTV.[14] The album was released October 22, 2007 and opened at number 4 with 66,000 US units sold according to the Billboard 200 trade listing.[15] By September 2010, the album had sold 319,000 copies total.[16]

Music videos of the album's songs were each filmed by discrete directors. Tankian revealed: "I asked each of the directors for their visual interpretation of my work. They were asked not to write treatments and that they could make whatever they liked. The results have been overwhelmingly amazing".[17] Initially some videos were released as limited edition premiums. All videos were later freely offered on Tankian's website and his YouTube channel. Some of these "official videos" were alternate versions released one version at a time, suggesting incrementally evolving narrative.

Collectible versions of the album include an instrumental disc offered by Serjical Strike/Reprise Records, and the "final master" from Reprise intended for specific journalists and reviewers. That embargoed disc was labeled "Smart Talk" [a coded reference to the artist's own name].[18] Previously an undated, un-mastered 'Smart Talk' promo featured these same 'final versions' of the songs, but the sequence of tracks ten and eleven was juxtaposed.

Production

Tankian stated that some of these songs were new, and others had developed earlier. An acoustic version of "Blue" was released on the album's special edition bonus disc. The original version appeared on System of a Down's fourth demo tape but had no other recordings of the song were known to exist.

The title track was also recorded by System of a Down during the recording sessions for Mezmerize and Hypnotize but this version remains unreleased.

It's very wide sounding — lots of different sounding instruments. The excitement I had making this record was the same excitement I had making the first System record.

— Serj Tankian

An Elect the Dead tour commenced October 12, 2007 at Chicago's Vic Theater. Tankian cautioned fans this production featured a new band, Flying Cunts of Chaos (a.k.a. The F.C.C.), which was not promoting the System of a Down.

In 2009, Tankian did a symphonic tour with an orchestra in order to perform symphonic renditions of most of the songs from Elect the Dead. A recording of this tour titled Elect the Dead Symphony was released February 23, 2010 in the US.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Serj Tankian

No.TitleLength
1."Empty Walls"3:49
2."The Unthinking Majority"3:46
3."Money"3:53
4."Feed Us"4:31
5."Saving Us"4:41
6."Sky Is Over"2:57
7."Baby"3:31
8."Honking Antelope"3:50
9."Lie Lie Lie"3:33
10."Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition"4:23
11."Beethoven's Cunt"3:13
12."Elect the Dead"2:54
Total length:45:03
iTunes and Japanese version bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
13."The Reverend King"2:49
Total length:47:52
Special edition bonus disc
No.TitleLength
1."Blue"2:45
2."Empty Walls" (Acoustic)3:46
3."Feed Us" (Acoustic)4:21
4."Falling Stars"3:05
Total length:14:17

Personnel
  • All songs written & performed by Serj Tankian (guitars, bass, piano, vocals, synthesizers, drum programming, melodica, bells)
  • All songs recorded at Serjical Strike Studios
  • Produced by Serj Tankian
  • Engineered by Dan Monti & Serj Tankian
  • Mastered by Vlado Meller at Sony Music Studios in New York City
  • A&R Craig Aaronson & George Tonikian
  • Original artwork provided by Sako Shahinian
  • Album packaging design by Sako Shahinian
  • Digipack album packaging design by Keith Aazami
  • Photography by Greg Watermann

Charts
Chart (2007) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[19] 19
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[20] 5
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 64
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] 50
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[23] 4
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[24] 45
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[25] 12
French Albums (SNEP)[26] 23
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[27] 10
Italian Albums (FIMI)[28] 43
Japanese Album Charts (Oricon)[29] 55
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[30] 14
Scottish Albums (OCC)[31] 33
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[32] 36
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[33] 11
UK Albums (OCC)[34] 26
US Billboard 200[35] 4

References
  1. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". IGN. October 22, 2007. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012.
  2. Partridge, Kenneth (August 11, 2010). "SERJ TANKIAN + Elect the Dead Symphony". M Music & Musicians Magazine. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  3. AllMusic review
  4. "CD: Serj Tankian, Elect the Dead". The Guardian. October 25, 2007. Archived from the original on December 2, 2020.
  5. SERJ TANKIAN Paints Grim Picture With 'Sky Is Over' - Jan. 16, 2008
  6. "Elect The Dead". Metacritic.
  7. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead - Album Review". AbsolutePunk. August 3, 2023.
  8. "Elect the Dead - Serj Tankian". billboard.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007.
  9. "CG: serj". Robert Christgau.
  10. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  11. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". Music Emissions.
  12. Serj Tankian biography on SOADFans fansite Archived August 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  13. Swedish MTV
  14. UK MTV Archived February 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  15. "Blabbermouth.Net - Serj Tankian, Rob Zombie, Soilwork, Exodus, Skindred First-Week Sales Revealed". Roadrunnerrecords.com. Archived from the original on November 2, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  16. "Upcoming Releases". HITS Daily Double. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  17. System of a Down Frontman To Post Videos For Each Track On Forthcoming Solo Album Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  18. Picture of the Elect The Dead promo CD-R
  19. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  20. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  21. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  22. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  23. "Serj Tankian Chart History (Canadian Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  24. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  25. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  26. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  27. "Offizielle Deutsche Charts" (in German). offiziellecharts.de. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  28. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  29. "エレクト ザ・デッド | サージ タンキアン" (in Japanese). Oricon. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  30. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  31. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  32. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  33. "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead". Hung Medien. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  34. "Serj Tankian | full Chart History". Official Charts Company. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
  35. "Serj Tankian Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved October 31, 2021.
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