I remember buying SOAD's first album really wanting to like it, but a lot of the songs just sounded the same to me. I kept giving it another chance, but no matter how many times I listened to it, I just never got into it. It wasn't horrible, just horribly boring.
I don't know that I've heard any of Serj's solo stuff, though.
I never got into SoaD tbh, I found them to be ok at one time but now i just find them to be just as bad as the regular standard Nu metal bands out there. I thought KoRn was a better band at their prime but then again, I outgrew KoRn.