IN terms of inventiveness System Of A Down can have few peers.

Mesmerize is schizophrenic in the extreme and totally unpredictable, but all the better for it.

One minute you are listening to ear-splitting, thrash metal, before being hit with a beautiful, melodic chorus. Radio/Video even has elements of polka fused in with the messy rock mayhem.

Bring Your Own Bombs is a breathless, anti-war rant with vocalist Serj Tankian breaking out into an R&B chorus, and the robotic voices and strange synth sounds of Old School Hollywood are off the radar even for these guys.

The US Government's war record is just one of a number of targets for the angry Armenian-American four-piece, who are releasing a second CD - Hypnotize - to accompany this within a few months.

Updated: 16:37 Wednesday, June 15, 2005