After a year of hyping their CD ''Toxicity'' and a summer with Ozzfest, you'd think System of a Down would be ready for some, uh, down time. But all systems are go as the band scrambles to finish a new album by year's end, while frontman Serj Tankian completes ''Serart,'' a collaboration with Armenian multi-instrumentalist Arto Tuncboyaciyan, and prepares to launch his label, Serjical Strike. System have been mixing ''Steal This Album,'' which includes songs from the ''Toxicity'' sessions that had been leaked on the Web. ''The Internet mixes were awful. People were missing out,'' says guitarist Daron Malakian.
Meanwhile, Tankian has signed three bands to Serjical Strike and hopes to release four discs, including ''Serart,'' by the end of 2003. ''None of them sound like anything out there,'' Tankian says of the bands. The System singer will produce the debut for Britpop start-ups Slow Motion Reign and supply guest vocals for Goth rockers Kittens for Christian, while Malakian will produce the debut from hard rockers Bad Acid Trip, which will feature a remix by Tankian. ''You could call it artsy thrash,'' says Malakian of Bad Acid Trip's music. ''It's not like I'm waiting for a radio single. But you never know. They played us.''
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