Given the enduring success of System Of A Down, one would presume that most musicians in the field of rock are at least familiar with a song or two from the Armenian-American nü-metal band. As it turns out, veteran rock and jazz drummer Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Starr, Spinal Tap, Dave Lee Roth, etc.) is one of them, but he is by no means familiar with their works.
His lack of exposure to the group recently allowed Drumeo to strike again. The latter presented the 65-year-old musician with the title track to System Of A Down‘s 6x multi-platinum sophomore album “Toxicity“, tasking him coming up with his own drum parts for it.
The ever-present rub is that the version of the song Bissonette is hearing does not feature the percussion of John Dolmayan, leaving Bissonette with a blank slate for his own ideas. You can watch him run through multiple takes to get a feel for the track before finally locking in his contributions below. You can also see his reaction to hearing the original track as intended afterwards.
