Aerials

Most of the song's character comes from restraint rather than harmonic complexity. The band built its reputation on abrupt tempo and meter changes, and "Aerials" mostly sets those aside for a steady 4/4 with a small pool of natural-minor chords, letting arrangement and dynamics do the work. The Armenian-flavored instrumental coda is the one place the melodic writing pushes outside standard rock phrasing. Because no transcription data was available, the chord names above should be treated as an inferred reading of the recording rather than a verified chart.

Daron Malakian wrote the music and Serj Tankian the lyrics, the division of labor credited on every commercial pressing of the single. The words circle around ego and self-importance, using a river and a waterfall as the image for a life that carries you along whether or not you resist it. The band recorded it for Toxicity, the follow-up to their 1998 debut, and held it back as the album's third single.

Released in 2002 as the third single from Toxicity, "Aerials" traded the band's usual whiplash tempo shifts for a patient, hymn-like build and a chorus about a river that flows to nowhere. It topped both Billboard's Alternative Songs and Mainstream Rock charts, the first number one of System of a Down's career, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2003. Loudwire and Kerrang both later placed it third among the band's greatest songs.