"Sugar" is a song by American heavy metal band

System of a Down System of a Down (also known as SoaD or simply System) is an Armenian-American heavy metal band formed in Glendale, California, in 1994. Since 1997, the band has consisted of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards); Daron Malakian (guitar, voc ...

. It was released as the band's first ever

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

and on May 24, 1998, and as an EP on May 26, 1999. The song was taken from their debut studio album, ''

'' (1998). The song propelled the band into the front of the then current metal scene, giving them the opportunity to open for

Slayer Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style ...

and

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

, get second stage at

Ozzfest Ozzfest is an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband Ozzy Osbourne, both ...

, and getting them their first headlining tour. The video for the song was often played on MTV after release.

Music and lyrics

"Sugar" has been described as "a spazzy, jazz-spattered noise rock freak-out". The song features rapped verses from lead singer

Serj Tankian Serj Tankian (born August 21, 1967) is an Armenian-American singer, musician, songwriter, political activist and entrepreneur. He is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, keyboardist, and occasional rhythm guitarist of heavy metal ...

, along with death metal growls and shrieks, the latter two being signatures of the band's early sound. The verses of the song feature guitarist

Daron Malakian Daron Malakian (born July 18, 1975) is an Armenian-American musician. He is best known as the guitarist, songwriter, and second vocalist of metal band System of a Down, and as the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwrit ...

on backing vocals. Later in the band's career, he would move on to be more of a co-lead vocalist (although he sang on demos of "Roulette" and DAM"). The ending of the song features the band speeding up from the original tempo. "Sugar" is about the world's population's over use and reliance on drugs and other substances, as well as the predatory state of media like the news.

Music video

The music video for "Sugar" shows the band playing on a stage, with an American flag intercut with images of public violence, hangings from the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

, armies, footage of the

Upshot-Knothole Grable Upshot–Knothole ''Grable'' was a nuclear weapons test conducted by the United States as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. Detonation of the associated nuclear weapon occurred 19 seconds after its deployment at 8:30am PDT (1530 UTC) on May ...

nuclear test and footage from the German film ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...

''. The video was directed by Nathan Coxx. The video, along with the band's next single, would be an

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

mainstay for a long time to come, much to the surprise of the band.

Reception

The song was well received by critics and fans alike. It is regarded to be the best song from this album, and one of the band's best overall. "Sugar" is System of a Down's 7th most streamed song on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, having almost 180 million streams. The music video for the song also has over 128 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Track listing

Personnel

System of a Down *

– lead vocals, keyboards/samples *

– guitars, background vocals *

Shavo Odadjian Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian ( hy, Շավարշ "Շավո" Օդաջյան; born April 22, 1974) is an Armenian-American musician, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band System of a Down. He also plays bass in a trap group called North Kingsl ...

– bass *

John Dolmayan John Dolmayan (; born July 15, 1972) is a Lebanese-born Armenian-American musician, best known as the drummer of System of a Down. He is also the drummer for the band Indicator and former drummer for Scars on Broadway. Dolmayan ranked number 33 ...

– drums Production * Produced by

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popula ...

with System of a Down * Mixed by

D. Sardy David Stuart Sardy (born 1967), more commonly known as D. Sardy, is an American composer, musician, songwriter, and multiple Grammy winning record producer. He came to prominence as the leader of 1990s noise rock band Barkmarket before turning mo ...

* Engineered by

Sylvia Massy Sylvia Lenore Massy is an American record producer, mixer, engineer, instructor and author. Massy is renowned for her multifaceted production/mixing and engineering skills, with her first major breakthrough occurring with 1993's '' Undertow'', th ...

* Engineer/assistant engineer:

Greg Fidelman Greg Fidelman (born September 4, 1965) is an American record mixer, engineer and record producer. He is a frequent collaborator of producer Rick Rubin, and has worked with many bands in various genres, including Metallica, Slayer, High on Fire, B ...

* Additional recording/finishing Touches: D. Sardy * Assistant engineers: Sam Storey,

Nick Raskulinecz Nick Raskulinecz () (born February 4, 1970) is an American record producer. He resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Production career Raskulinecz is from the Bearden area of Knoxville, Tennessee. He first produced and recorded bands in Knoxville ...

* Assistant mixdown engineers: James Saez, Greg Gordon, Andy Haller * Second assistant mixdown engineer: Bryan Davis * A&R direction: Dino Paredes, Sam Wick * Management: Velvet Hammer Management, David Benveniste * Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, California * Vocals and additional recordings at Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research, Hollywood, California * Mixed at

Record Plant Studios The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...

, Hollywood, California & Hollywood Sound, California * Mastered by Vlado Meller at

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Studios, New York City * Live Tracks Produced by D. Sardy * Live Tracks Mixed by D. Sardy * Live Tracks Engineered by Doug Henderson * Live Tracks Recorded at Irving Plaza, New York City, New York

Chart positions

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugar (System Of A Down Song) System of a Down songs 1998 debut singles Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin 1998 songs Songs written by Serj Tankian Nu metal songs