After the jaw-dropping first half of their two part Mezmerize/Hypnotize double album in May debuted to a rousing reception, System of A Down is back to finish the job – their goal was to complete the greatest double album ever.

Unfortunately, it won’t take that crown. “Hypnotize” is a good record, but lacks the schizophrenic and unpredictable feel of its precessador. The album seems more polished, ready to take over the airwaves, and loses a little bit of what made “Mezmerize” so great.

Much of the song structure stays the same: the wild lyrics, the wailing guitar riffs, and political rants.

The album starts off well with “Attack”, but loses some steam in the track “Dreaming”. One of the stand out tracks is “Kill Rock & Roll”; where guitarist Daron Malakian and lead singer Serj Tankian trade off lyrical barbs such as “I felt like the biggest a-----e/when I killed your rock & roll”. Now, only they know what they are talking about, but the album hits a high point here. The first single, the title track to the album, sounds like one of the most radio friendly singles that the band has done, and fits well with the album. The title track does not live up to the first single from Mezmerize, “B.Y.O.B.” by a longshot.

Other strong tracks include “U-Fig” and “Tentative”, where the former screams out political rants about “eyes in the sky”. Sometimes the band leaves their politically charged lyrics thinly veiled, sometimes confusing the more straight forward listener on the message.

But the album seems to fall apart towards the end. “Mezmerize” charged ahead at the end, with “Sad Statue”, and my personal favorite “Old School Hollywood”. On “Hypnotize”, “She’s Like Heroin” and “Lonely Day” do not rile up the same groove or feeling of the last album.

In the end, “Hypnotize” works to be a dependably decent album, but does not do the first half of the project justice.

GRADE: B-