During a recent interview with Metal Hammer, Shavo Odadjian shared his thoughts on System Of A Down being categorized as nü-metal. While the bassist admitted to being resistant to the label at first, he has since embraced it, saying “it was an era of doing metal a different way.”
Odadjian said the following:
“I never liked being compared to anyone. When they put us in a group, I would always be like, ‘We’re not nu metal, we’re our own thing!’ Now I’m older and wiser.”
He went on to share some love for his peers within the genre:
“Those are my bros, man. I made great friends in that community. Touring with these guys and hanging out with them every night, it created some special bonds and I’m proud of that. We’re still in that group and that era.”
He continued:
“You can’t compare System or Korn to Static-X. It was an era of doing metal a different way. It was bringing in other elements to metal as a whole and not giving a fuck. That’s what the kids of today are attracted to and bonding with in that genre.”
He also added that he views nü-metal as an “attitude”:
“Our era was like that in a different way: we didn’t care we were mixing Arabic and Armenian elements with death metal, Korn didn’t care that they were mixing in hip-hop, Deftones didn’t care they sang like Sade! Static-X added disco… There was such a cool melting pot. You can’t deny that it was cool and special, right?”
Metal Anarchy 
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