So last Tuesday I decided to rip apart System Of A Down’s “P.L.U.C.K.” using this method floating around musician forums. Grabbed my old laptop, opened Audacity with cracked plugins, and dove headfirst into the madness.
The initial clusterfuck
Started simple: threw on noise-canceling headphones and looped the track fifteen times straight. First realization? That intro guitar riff isn’t actually complicated – it’s just Daron malding his strings while Serj does demonic nursery rhymes. Tried tabbing it out by ear and kept mixing Armenian scales with regular pentatonic like an idiot.
Breaking down the PLUCK acronym my way:
- Production Cluster: Isolated stems from YouTube converters (trash quality obviously). The bass disappears completely during verse transitions. Their engineer must’ve been high when mixing.
- Lyrics WTF: Googled “p.l.u.c.k meaning” – turns out it’s “Politically Lying, Unholy, Cowardly Killers.” Should’ve guessed from Serj screaming about genocide.
- Unhinged Structure: Drew song sections on butcher paper. Realized they cram 4 song ideas into 3:42. Breakdown around 2:17 suddenly becomes polka-metal.
- Cacophony Composition: Tried covering the drums with my MIDI keyboard. Failed miserably when the 17/8 time signature sections kicked in. My cat ran away.
- Killer Vocals: Attempted to match Serj’s tone with cheap karaoke mic. Neighbors banged on walls. Learned vibrato sounds like choking when you can’t sing.
The facepalm moment
After two days of this bullshit, I finally understood – SOAD songs can’t be reverse-engineered by mortals. That guitar tone comes from broken amps and Turkish saz strings duct-taped to guitars. Serj’s vocals require possession by Armenian ghosts. The chaotic magic happens when you smash political rage, music theory, and studio cocaine into one recording booth.
Ultimate takeaway? Don’t dissect genius unless you want to spend nights crying into your audio interface. Still got migraine from counting time signature changes. Totally worth it though.
