Tom Morello, Serj Tankian + M. Shadows Featured on John Dolmayan’s These Grey Men Album
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan is prepping the release of a new album and it will be a star-studded affair. The long-gestating effort will be released under the moniker These Grey Men and will feature Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows, Prophets of Rage guitarist Tom Morello and Dolmayan's System of a Down cohort Serj Tankian.
In an interview with SOAD Mexico, Dolmayan explains he is still working on the effort and claims it will be released in the next four months. He says, “All the songs are finished, but we’re in the process of adding strings.” Dolmayan adds, “We’re actually starting to mix some of the songs that have already been done.”
The drummer continues, “There’s some cool artists on it. Serj sang two songs and the Avenged Sevenfold singer M Shadows, he sang a song.” He adds, “Tom Morello played guitar on a song. I know it’s been forever, but it will be released.”
Nearly five years ago, we interviewed Dolmayan about These Grey Men, and at the time he explained that since System of a Down was not recording new music he felt like he “needed to do something artistic soon” or it would “impede” his growth as a musician.
System of a Down haven’t released an album since 2005’s Hypnotize. Dolmayan recently said that “all” members of the band are to blame for the lack of new music from the band citing “Egomania eccentricities, megalomania and sometimes just stupidity all play roles.”
The drummer also shares that it’s also becoming increasingly difficult to get certain members of System to tour and that “the guys want to play only so many shows, so we have to be picky with where we play and unfortunately it’s usually a financial decision.”
The interview with SOAD Mexico also touches on Dolmayan’s Torpedo Comic Books and his love of the genre. Dolmayan says that Fantastic Four is his favorite comic book and that Dr. Doom is his favorite comic book villain. Watch the entire video in the player below.
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