System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan has said there will be no sign of a new album anytime soon.
“I don’t know if it’s ever gonna happen at this point,” the drummer told KROQ’s Ted Stryker last Friday (8th June).
He added: “I don’t like saying that, but you’ve gotta live in the realm of reality. And anything we do outside of System is never gonna be anywhere close to System. System is the best thing that anybody in System will ever do. But we still do other things.”
The band’s last albums ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’ came out over a decade ago in 2005 although the band have continued to tour and announced new dates earlier this year with At The Drive-In and Incubus.
Releasing five acclaimed albums since their split in 2006 before reuniting in 2010 for a series of world tours, the band have struggled with getting a sixth record together. Last year, the band teased new material with photos of the quartet in a recording studio appearing online.
Dolmayan added: “It’s a complex question. You know I’m ready to go any time, and certain members of my band haven’t been able to make it work for themselves.”
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“And it’s one of those things where if you can’t get everybody to come together and do it, it just doesn’t happen.”
His comments come after separate ones by guitarist Doron Malakian and frontman Serj Tankian who both admitted the band were struggling to find common ground on how the next album should sound.
Tankian told Rolling Stone that they “still haven’t come eye to eye on how things should be done for us to be able to move forward with it.”
Malakian, meanwhile, told Revolver: “I can’t close the book on it and say it’s done forever. We still play live. We’re all still friends. It’s more a combination of where each person is at a different point in their life, and each person wants to do a different thing.”
He added: “There are some creative differences as well on what direction each one of us wants to take the next System album, if that ever happens. Which is fine. I’m not sitting here upset or anything. The only thing I’m a little frustrated with was waiting for that to maybe happen or not happen.”