SERJ TANKIAN On SYSTEM OF A DOWN’s Current Band Chemistry: “Right Now We’re Having The Best Time Of Our Lives As A Band”

System Of A Down’s next chapter is defined less by the grind of touring and more by friendship, boundaries, and scale. In a new conversation with Kerrang!, vocalist Serj Tankian described a band that has rediscovered its internal chemistry on its own terms, an approach that helps explain both their light calendar and their leap to stadiums.

“Right now … we’re having the best time of our lives as a band. We’re really enjoying each other on tour. It’s so, so welcoming — we’re very deeply involved with each other’s lives, personally. It’s what I’ve always wanted the band to be. We had to go back to our own corners, assess things, and come back together for us to really appreciate what we have in every way,” Tankian said (via Blabbermouth).

That reset is shaping everything from routing to philosophy. With a 10-date European stadium run locked for summer 2026, Tankian says the group is guarding its energy and choosing shows with care, a far cry from the relentless cycle most acts accept as standard.

“We don’t play that many shows. We pick and choose what we want to do, and we actually talk about what we want to do. We don’t do tours. We just go, ‘Hey, where do you want to go?’ For example, we’re starting in Stockholm, and that wasn’t something that we were going to do originally, but Daron Malakian recommended it because he wanted to go there. And I’m, like, ‘Bro, you want to go there? Let’s start there!’ He was, like, ‘Really?’ and I’m, like, ‘Yeah! Because my friend wants to go there!’ That’s been our attitude, and it’s been amazing. It’s more caring about what we each think as friends, rather than what a professional band is supposed to do, which was very much a turn-off when we took our hiatus. Definitely for me, but I also want to say for the rest of the guys, because they’ve also admitted to that.”

It’s a pragmatic stance for a legacy metal band that can now move on to stadium scale. The demand is real; the guardrails are deliberate. Tankian frames it as art-first, not out of mystique, but out of sustainability.

“We’re not selling widgets. We’re artists, and we want to remain that way. We want to remain careful and not over-expose ourselves, so we’re picky. We play 10 to 15 shows a year now, and we’re doing stadiums instead of arenas, which is mind-blowing to us. We never even thought that that would happen in our careers… For us, it’s insane. And it speaks volumes about people and their kids coming to shows and the generational power of music, and particularly System Of A Down’s music. It really hits a nerve with people — we don’t exactly know why it does, but we’re very grateful. We disappeared for so many years for our own personal reasons, and then we reappeared, and there’s this huge demand, and we’re just shocked by it. We just want to be careful and make people happy with our performances, but not overdo it.”

The 2026 European stadiums will be the band’s first shows on the continent since 2017, when System Of A Down headlined Download and wrapped a 20-date run. This time they’re flanked by heavyweight support in Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath, a bill pitched squarely at the broader rock/metal crowd that grew up with System Of A Down and now brings their own kids.

If you’re looking for a recent temperature check, their short North American stadium burst told the story: two-night stands in three cities, each paired with a different top-liner, Avenged Sevenfold at Chicago’s Soldier Field and Deftones in Toronto, after opening at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The format underscored the point Tankian keeps circling back to: fewer shows, bigger moments, less noise.

For a band that once stepped away rather than grind, this phase feels intentional. The rooms are larger, but the circle is smaller, four friends, choosing when and where to turn the volume up.