Ever since Serj Tankian went solo after System Of A Down called it a day, he never managed to convince. Nevertheless I keep hoping to hear another album worth listening to because with SOAD they managed to come up with an original sound that was aggressive, melodic and unpredictable. Unfortunately “Harakiri” is once again not that album.

On the man’s third solo offering, we get more System Of A Down lite that follows the formula down to a T without ever questioning whether it’s the right way to go. Rushed refrains with Tankian doing weird things with his voice… check. Big choruses… check. Yet it never captures your attention and there are too many transitions that feel awkward.

Listening to songs like the very plain vanilla title track and “Reality TV”, I’m left thinking that someone else in System Of A Down was in charge of quality control and by the time I heard the line ‘how could you just occupy another child’s tear’ in “Occupied Tears”, I gave up on finding any redeeming qualities about this album. At this stage in his career, hara-kiri does begin to seem like a viable option.