System Of A Down – Toxicity

Wow. This is an EPIC ALBUM but very underrated IMO. This VMP pressing sounds amazing on my sound system. I compared it to the original US CD version and the second US vinyl pressing from 2018 and it wins hands down in every way. Clean and powerful sound! I went to their show last week in São Paulo and the live sound was really incredible. I can say that this pressing delivers a sound quality very similar to their live sound. The loudness is not as high but when you crunch the volume, the dynamic range, spread and power all grow together! What an amazing pressing. AND there's an additional track at the end of the record with that traditional armenian instrumental session. Maybe the US original can sounds better, but I'm really happy with this one. Strongly recommended.

There's a faint hint of few clicks at the first track of both sides. But overall this sounds superb and I totally loved it. No other version or copy to compare this to but so far this is an incredible mastering/pressing. Sadly my copy doesn't comes with the obi as what others mentioned that it should be anywhere inside the mailer.

Guess I’m unlucky. Mine has a ton of noise on the first 15-20 seconds of both sides. Bummer

First reaction is simply surprise at how great the music is. Recorded sound is nothing great. Tiny soundstage. No matter how loud I turn it up, the music stays stubbornly within the speakers, the whole band seems to be emerging from a single point in space. There is no illusion whatsoever of hearing a singer fronting a band in a performance space. My copy had a lot of surface noise. Because the music is extremely loud, this was audible only during quiet beginnings of some songs and at those few moments when the band uses silence to punctuate a musical point. At those points, the musical effect was completely ruined by ticks, pops, and other surface noise. This persisted after a deep clean, so I will request a replacement and see if I can get a clean copy.

Despite my bad luck in getting a noisy copy and my reservations about the sound quality, I am really glad to have this album in my vinyl collection; it is just so enjoyable on a purely musical level that I think I will end up spinning it a lot. Recommended as long as you are not expecting audiophile sound.

Decided to go with this one this month for nostalgia's sake, it's been at least 15 years since I've heard this album. Still blows my mind how much Serj Tankian sounds like Will Ferrell when he does the whisper voice.

My pressing was clean and dynamic, though I have nothing to compare it to outside of the CD I bought around 2003 and listened to in my Discman until it was destroyed.

This may be the recording but the sound is so compressed that it deters the heaviness of the sound from being impactful.

A decent pressing, and most definitely an improvement over the previous reissue/s, but it still doesn't deliver as much as the 2001 pressing. The vocals and drums are nice and forward, but it just collapses and doesn't really deliver the energy this album has. The CD still tops any pressing unfortunately, this press can get pretty "boxed in" sounding at times, the low end is pretty lean. Right when you're ready for things to kick ass it collapses. The 2001 is no magical pressing, but it doesn't implode like this cut does. It's a short album, really no excuse for it to sound this lean and cut at a lower volume. Bernie Grundman would have had my grandmother moshing in the living room to this album, for what it SHOULD be on vinyl, this falls short.

It's pressed by GZ, so don't be surprised if it need a wet clean or has some handling marks from the factory, fortunately the copy I received was just a little dusty and plays relatively noise free.

It's a novelty to have this album on vinyl, none of the vinyl pressings come close to delivering the goods like the CD. That's not a bad thing right? I mean the CD is easily the least expensive format to own this on.

If you HAVE to have a 12" version of this, it's very decent and looks great.

Very nice pressing quiet and sounds amazing great record all the way through and I love the gatefold absolutely one of my favorites from VMP.

Listening to this now is just like hearing it for the first time after 9/11.
War…war never changes.

Great album. It really is a timeless record as it’s even more relevant today than it was back then. VMP did a nice job on this one and I kind of like the minimal packaging for this. The package is quality but not overdone. Great mastering, well balanced. If you are a fan, get this one before prices get stupid.