Marking the 15th anniversary of SOAD's classic album "Toxicity" - released on September 4, 2001 - Rolling Stone published a rundown of 10 things you didn't know about the record.

Marking the 15th anniversary of SOAD's classic album "Toxicity" - released on September 4, 2001 - Rolling Stone published a rundown of 10 things you didn't know about the record.

 

We're looking at the record that brought us "Chop Suey!", "Toxicity," "Aerials," and more.

The facts await below, consult the source for the full thing.

1. The album was released a week before 9/11 and topped the Billboard 200 the week of the tragedy

After the attack, Tankian said in an essay:

"If we carry out bombings on Afghanistan or elsewhere to appease public demand, and very likely kill innocent civilians along the way, we'd be creating many more martyrs going to their deaths in retaliation against the retaliation. As shown from yesterday's events, you cannot stop a person who's ready to die."

2. Producer Rick Rubin offered the band crucial feedback on their reliably demented lyrics - even though he had no idea what they meant

Rubin said about the lyrics to either the title track or "Chop Suey!": "Serj didn't have words for the bridge. We were at my house doing the vocals and working on the idea, and I remember the idea of the father happening and then us trying to make it biblical in that way. It's really heavy.

"I don't know what it means, but I know how it makes me feel. It's like a lot of Neil Young songs, where the lyrics don't necessarily make sense, but they give you this feeling of something going on.

"This does that. And it goes from that wackiness of the verse to the epic sadness of the chorus. It's so weird. And listen to how much harmony there is. Vocal harmonies - no one has vocal harmonies."

3. In contrast to the band's first album, guitarist Daron Malakian went wild with overdubs on 'Toxicity'

"I know what I'm doing," he told MTV before the release. "There are just certain things that I thought could have been better from the last record ... I knew what I wanted to do with the guitars to make it more furious. On the last record, there were two tracks of guitars. On this record, there's 12 tracks on each song."

4. Despite its blatant orgy references, the blitzing 'Bounce' was used in the family-friendly animated film 'The Secret Life of Pets.'

"Unannounced Twister games, all players with no names/They lined up, double quick, but just one pogo stick," Tankian belts on "Bounce." "Everyone gets to play, runaway, exposé/It was so exotic, but just one pogo stick."

5. Metallica were huge fans of the album

"Ulrich named 'Toxicity' the second-best album of the decade, with 'Mesmerize' following at Number 16; he also voted for 'Toxicity' and 'B.Y.O.B.' on the songs list.

"Hammett named 'Mesmerize' the second-best album of the decade and 'Violent Pornography' the 16th-best song. At a November 2003 concert promoting 'Steal This Album!', Hammett even joined SOAD onstage to play 'Aerials,' 'Toxicity''s poignant centerpiece."

6. The band viewed hidden track 'Arto' - their first song without guitars - as a crucial creative breakthrough

"There's no guitars or anything on that one," bassist Shavo Odadjian proudly told MTV. "We used these Armenian instruments and we all chanted. It's really emotional, and my mom cries every time she hears it. I wanted to remember all the Armenians that died in 1915 during the genocide."

7. At one point during the sessions, Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan beat each other up severely - but later viewed the showdown as a badge of honor

"There were times when we fuckin' threw down," Malakian told journalist Jon Wiederhorn. "John and I were totally going at it. My lip was all cut up, and I took a microphone stand and hit him across the head and his head was all bashed in. Shavo and Serj were looking at us saying, 'Awww, man, we're done.' But right after we fought, we took each other to the hospital and got stitched up right next to each other. Both of us were sitting there laughing, saying, 'This is one of the coolest moments in the history of our band.'"

8. The Beatles helped the band learn how to balance the wacky metal aggression of their early work with concise pop song structures

"The Beatles made me realize song structure, putting things into three minutes – compress these things," Malakian told Guitar.com. "Maybe take some things out, which as a songwriter I think is the hardest thing in the world. It's easy to keeping throwing ideas in because you love all your ideas. But to make the song great, you gotta sometimes pull things out and that's the hardest part. What part of the song do you pull out to make it great? That's the biggest challenge."

9. System wrote more than 40 songs for Toxicity

"It took us a long time to even approach that subject," Dolmayan told MTV. "It was really tough," Odadjian added. "We all had to choose from all those great songs. We had to pick 17 that Andy [Wallace] mixed, and out of those 17 we had to pick 14 that made the album."

10. The brooding 'ATWA' was inspired in part by Malakian's fascination with Charles Manson

"The acronym 'ATWA' - 'Air, Trees, Water, Animals' - was coined by notorious convict Charles Manson as a term to promote harmony through nature."

"It's something that he tends to really be focused on," Malakian said in an interview promoting the LP. "Even his so-called 'family' that he's had: There was a method behind what happened there. … The Charles Manson everybody sees on television - everything is always one-sided on television ... I don't agree with killing anybody. I don't agree with going in and slashing anybody's throats or anything, writing shit on the walls. That's not what I'm into. That's not the side of the Charles Manson that I'm into. It's more of his ideas and his thoughts on society."

 Thats All!!! Thank You!!!! Special Credits to Ultimate Guitar For the Post ! And We All Love SOAD!