System Of A Down released Steal This Album! on November 26, 2002, through American Recordings/Columbia. Their third studio album arrived after unfinished recordings had escaped online, pushing the band to complete songs listeners were already trading. Produced by Daron Malakian and Rick Rubin, the 16-track record included “Innervision,” the acoustic “Roulette” and the antiwar “Boom!,” which later received a video directed by Michael Moore.
The versions circulating online had left out significant parts of the music. Malakian told Billboard in 2002 that his backing vocals and at least 10 guitar tracks were missing from the leaked recordings. Hearing those incomplete versions changed his mind about releasing the material. The band had considered saving songs for soundtracks or another album, but that timetable no longer made sense once listeners could download them. Completing the recordings gave System a way to put the intended arrangements into circulation.
Serj Tankian also pushed back against the idea that the songs were rejects. “We don’t consider any of these songs B-sides or outtakes,” he said in the band’s October 2002 announcement. Their absence from Toxicity came down to how that album worked as a whole, he explained, rather than a judgment that the material wasn’t good enough. Tankian told Billboard they had also decided against making Toxicity a double album.
Malakian gave that reasoning a musical explanation in a January 2003 interview with Lollipop Magazine. Adding “Ego Brain,” “Streamline” and “Roulette” to Toxicity, he said, would have emphasized territory already covered by “Aerials” and “ATWA.” He chose songs according to the balance of the entire record. He described Rubin’s contribution as an outside perspective on song choices and choruses, while taking responsibility himself for the music’s overall direction.
He also heard a direction worth pursuing in his vocal harmonies with Tankian, describing Steal This Album! as more melodic than its predecessor. His approach to guitar left similar room for the needs of each song. Malakian singled out the solo on “Nüguns” as a performance he was proud of, while explaining that he didn’t consider a solo necessary in every track. The parts were there because he felt they belonged.
The physical CD made the circumstances of the release visible. It came in a clear jewel case without a conventional booklet or cover insert, with the title scrawled across the disc like a homemade copy. Credits were accessible online. Columbia’s campaign was restrained, too: Billboard reported that a 15-second television spot supplied the album’s name and release date, leaving fans to investigate further. The label was trying to alert listeners to the record without giving it the usual heavy promotional push.
“Boom!” took the album into a different public setting in 2003. Moore filmed the band among demonstrators at the February 15 peace march in Los Angeles. Tankian told MTV News that the musicians carried small video cameras and interviewed people about why they had come, reversing their usual position as interview subjects. He wanted the video to show the families participating in the protests and the scale of the opposition to war that he felt television coverage had failed to convey.
