B.Y.O.B. (“Bring Your Own Bombs”) is a song by System of a Down, released in March 28, 2005 as the lead single from their fourth album Mezmerize. Like their earlier song “Boom!”, it was written in protest against the Iraq War. The song reached number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, the band’s highest peak to date on the chart. The song won the Best Hard Rock Performance category in the 2006 Grammy Awards.
Casey Chaos claimed to have helped write the song in 2002, and Malakian offered to gift him a 2% royalties credit. When Chaos asked for more, the offer was rescinded. Casey Chaos then subsequently sold a 50% interest in the song to Maxwood Music Ltd. However, in 2010 a Manhattan court ruled Malakian and Tankian to be the sole writers of the song.
The music video for B.Y.O.B. was directed by Jake Nava, shows an army of soldiers marching through the streets, wearing paintball masks with television screens projecting words like “DIE”, “TRUTH”, “OBEY”, or “BUY”, with the band members playing in the middle of the street.
During the chorus, the band is shown playing inside a night club. Midway through the video, co-lead vocalist Daron Malakian is shown screaming the words “Blast off! It’s party time! And we don’t live in a fascist nation! Blast off! It’s party time! And where the fuck are you?!”, when the soldiers storm the night club and force everyone to put on the drone masks, during which the masks show images of television shows and war. At the end of the video, the band members are shown wearing the drone masks, which are playing static.
Tracklist:
- B.Y.O.B. (Clean version)
- B.Y.O.B. (Explicit version)
System of a Down
Serj Tankian: vocals, keyboards
Daron Malakian: vocals, guitars, bass (uncredited)[5][6]
Shavo Odadjian: bass (credited but does not perform)
John Dolmayan: drums, percussion
Production
Rick Rubin: production
Andy Wallace: mixing
David Schiffman: engineering
Jason Lader: editing
Dana Neilsen: editing
Phillip Broussard: engineering assistance
John O’Mahony: Pro Tools engineering
Steve Sisco: mixing assistance
Joe Peluso: mixing assistance
Additional personnel
Marc Mann: string arrangements
Vartan Malakian: artwork
Brandy Flower: graphic design
