Toxicity at 25: System of a Down exhibit at Beyond the Streets revisits the album that changed everything

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Set us as preferred Twenty-five years ago, inside a New York recording studio, System of a Down was mixing an unreleased song called “Chop Suey!” for the band’s second album, “Toxicity.” As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in.“What is that?” David “Beno” Benveniste remembers them asking.Benveniste, the band’s longtime manager, was in the room with mixer Andy Wallace when he realized they had something special.

“It was a moment in time that was in slow motion,” Benveniste said.“I knew in my heart and in my soul, without even thinking about it.

I felt it vibrationally.I knew that song was giant.

I knew it.”Twenty-five years later, System of a Down is celebrating “Toxicity “ not with an anniversary concert, but with a weeklong exhibition at Beyond the Streets in Los Angeles.Running Oct.

13 through Oct.18, the free, all-ages exhibition will feature rare artifacts, photographs, ephemera, instruments, and other memorabilia from the album’s era.“Toxicity’ was released Sept.

4, 2001, exactly one week before the Sept.11 attacks.

The album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200, selling 222,000 copies in its first week, and produced three of the band’s defining songs: “Aerials,” “Toxicity,” and “Chop Suey!” Twenty-five years later, “Chop Suey!” has surpassed 2.1 billion streams on Spotify, while its official music video has more than 1.6 billion views on YouTube.Blending thrash metal, alternative rock, punk, and Armenian musical influences, “Toxicity” expanded the sound System of a Down had established on its debut without sacrificing the band’s identity.

Its success propelled the L.A.group from an emerging heavy rock act into an international headliner capable of filling stadiums.Despite t...