Elect the Dead

Elect the Dead
Elect the Dead
Studio album by Serj Tankian
Released	October 22, 2007
Recorded	Serjical Strike Dungeons, The Pass (Los Angeles)
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	45:03
Label	Serjical Strike, Reprise
Producer	Serj Tankian
Serj Tankian chronology
Alternative covers
	Alternative cover
Alternative cover
	Special edition cover
Singles from Elect the Dead
	"The Unthinking Majority"; Released: July 30, 2007; "Empty Walls"; Released: September 10, 2007; "Lie Lie Lie"; Released: December 24, 2007; "Sky Is Over"; Released: January 16, 2008;

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 from System of a Down and Bryan "Brain" Mantia of Primus and Guns N' Roses' Dan Monti on guitars, as well as a string section featuring Antonio Pontarelli.^[10]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(68%)^[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AbsolutePunk	(69%)^[5]
AllMusic	^[1]
Billboard	(favorable)^[6]
Robert Christgau	^[7]
IGN	(7.1/10)^[8]
Kerrang!
Music Emissions	^[9]
NME	(October 27, 2007, p.39)
Rolling Stone
The Guardian	^[2]

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^[11] and on UK MTV.^[12] 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.^[13] By September 2010, the album had sold 319,000 copies total.^[14]

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".^[15] 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].^[16] 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.	Title	Length
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

Special edition bonus disc
No.	Title	Length
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

iTunes and Japanese version bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
13.	"The Reverend King"	2:49
Total length:		47:52

Personnel

All songs written & performed by Serj Tankian (guitars, bass, piano, vocals, synthesizers, drum programming, melodica, bells, and various tone generating beauties)
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

Elect the Dead

All drums recorded at The Pass in Los Angeles
Drum engineer Krish Sharma
Assistant drum engineer Bo Joe
Drum technician at The Pass Sako Karaian
Mixed by Neal Avron at Paramount Recording Studios in Los Angeles
Mix assistant Nicholas Fournier
Drumming on tracks 1, 3, 7-9, 11 by Brain
Drumming on track 2 by John Dolmayan
Drumming on tracks 4 and 5 by Brain and John Dolmayan
Drum programming on track 6 by Dan Monti
Additional guitar on tracks 1-4, 6, 8, 11 by Dan Monti
Additional bass on tracks 2, 6-9, 11 by Dan Monti
Additional solo guitar on track 5 by Diran Noubar
Additional vocals on tracks 5 and 9 by Ani Maldjian
Additional cello on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12 by Cameron Stone
Additional violin on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 by Antonio Pontarelli
Additional synthesizers on track 6 by Dan Monti and Fabrice Favre

Special edition bonus disc

Drums on track 4 recorded at The Pass in Los Angeles
Additional engineering on track 1 by Thom Russo
Drum engineer on track 4 Krish Sharma
Assistant drum engineer on track 4 Bo Joe
Drum technician on track 4 Sako Karaian
Tracks 1-3 mixed by Serj Tankian & Dan Monti
Track 4 mixed by Neal Avron
Track 4 mix assistant Nicholas Fournier
Drumming on track 4 by John Dolmayan
Violin solo on track 4 by Antonio Pontarelli
Additional guitars on track 4 by Dan Monti
Additional violin on tracks 2-4 by Antonio Pontarelli
Additional cello on tracks 2-4 by Cameron Stone

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

Chart positions

Year	Chart	Peak
2007	Top Canadian Albums	3
	Billboard 200	4
	Austrian Albums Top 75	5
	German Albums Top 75	10
	Swiss Albums Top 100	11
	Finland Albums Top 40	12
	New Zealand Albums Chart	14
	ARIA Top 50 (Australia)	19
	France Albums Top 150	23
	UK Albums Chart	26

References

^ ^a ^b AllMusic review
^ ^a ^b the guardian
^ SERJ TANKIAN Paints Grim Picture With 'Sky Is Over' - Jan. 16, 2008
^ "Elect The Dead". Metacritic.
^ "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead - Album Review". AbsolutePunk.
^ "Elect the Dead - Serj Tankian". billboard.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007.
^ "CG: serj". Robert Christgau.
^ "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
^ "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". Music Emissions.
^ Serj Tankian biography on SOADFans fansite Archived August 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ Swedish MTV
^ UK MTV Archived February 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ "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.
^ "Upcoming Releases". HITS Daily Double. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
^ System of a Down Frontman To Post Videos For Each Track On Forthcoming Solo Album Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
^ Picture of the Elect The Dead promo CD-R^{[permanent dead link]}

External links

Elect the Dead at Serjical Strike Records

[AM-1] AllMusic review

[GUR-2] the guardian

[3] SERJ TANKIAN Paints Grim Picture With 'Sky Is Over' - Jan. 16, 2008

[4] "Elect The Dead". Metacritic.

[5] "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead - Album Review". AbsolutePunk.

[6] "Elect the Dead - Serj Tankian". billboard.com. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007.

[7] "CG: serj". Robert Christgau.

[8] "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". IGN. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.

[9] "Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Review". Music Emissions.

[SOADfans-10] Serj Tankian biography on SOADFans fansite Archived August 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

[11] Swedish MTV

[12] UK MTV Archived February 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[13] "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.

[14] "Upcoming Releases". HITS Daily Double. Retrieved February 14, 2012.

[15] System of a Down Frontman To Post Videos For Each Track On Forthcoming Solo Album Archived June 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine

[16] Picture of the Elect The Dead promo CD-R^{[permanent dead link]}

[10]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]