System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian & John Dolmayan Perform “Aerials” With Mexican Band Rock Medium

According to Consequence, while celebrating drummer John Dolmayan’s birthday in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico on July 15, Dolmayan and vocalist Serj Tankian stopped by a street performance and decided to give an impromptu performance. The two musicians joined Mexican street band Rock Medium on a cover of “Aerials” from System Of A Down’s second studio album Toxicity which was released in 2001. 

 Fan-shot footage shows Dolmayan behind the drumkit while Tankian makes his way to the microphone. The band looks happy to welcome the heavy metal stars and the crowd rejoices as they are treated to a star-studded performance. The song was previously covered by Machine Gun Kelly on the Howard Stern Show with a less than positive response from some fans and glowing reviews from others. 

The band has not released new music since 2020 with their powerfully evocative tracks “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz.”  Tankian previously released meaningful single entitled “Amber” featuring guest vocalist Sevak Amroyan which was meant to raise awareness about the Armenian struggle; the lyrics were also written in Armenian. Back in March, Tankian announced the release of his live solo album Live At Leeds for April 2022 release, he also teased a live version of “Empty Walls.” 

Dolmayan and Tankian both previously discussed the possibility of the band reuniting for new music with the latter stating that he was hopeful “that one day we might be able to get it together and do something again.” Dolmayan voiced his discontent with the lack of new music. 

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado

Skyy Rincon: Skyy Rincon is a recent alumni of the University of California, Irvine where she earned a B.A. in Literary Journalism with a Minor in History. She is the Music Editor at mxdwn.com. She has previously written about various social issues ranging from disability & identity to climate change. Aside from writing, she is also learning more about podcasting.
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