Friday, Dec. 21, 2001

Toxicity by System of a Down

In a year filled with screaming nu-metal acts, this band screams loudest and most eloquently. Front man Serj Tankian has a soaring voice, but as he demonstrates on standouts Chop Suey! and Forest, he knows how to modulate, sounding like an angry cantor one moment and a choir boy the next. Guitarist Daron Malakian backs it all up with a fierce wall of fuzz.