ehhh they do have a purely political message, they are oookkkaaayyy nu metal, not great. as said on the first page, they are a phase band. i was really into them for a few weeks, then dropped it. i bought the new albums just because.
I used to like System Of A Down. When I did I only didn't like Mesmerize. Hypnotize I liked because it was heavier than Mesmerize and the instrumentation to me wasn't as boring. But yea. Just like all the nu metal bands, I no longer like System Of A Down. Ps my favorite from them was Steal This Album. I thought that album's name was freakin hilarious. The band was literally begging for people to steal it.
Toxicity is one of the best alternative metal albums of ever, and one of the best rock/metal albums of 2001. But Hypnotize and Mesmerize aren't so good, my personal rating for them would be 5/6.
I Think that SOAD are an average NU-metal band, but have been seriuosly over rated. Of all the albums i bought only toxicity. It was the only one worth paying money for.
System of a Down are pretty interesting. I believe they are good because they are original (and perhaps some people might say they suck because they don't play guitar solos). I dig the Armenian style vocals and the time signature changes because it contributes to their unique sound.
I enjoyed this article on system of a down very much: click (Warning: If you are a SOAD fan, do not click here unless you wish to be insulted gravely.)