System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian made headlines after turning a live performance into a moment of public payback against Oasis.
During the band’s show at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Malakian directed a crowd of 50,000 fans in a chant aimed squarely at Oasis. The moment was widely seen as his response to Noel Gallagher’s past remarks branding System of a Down “the shittiest band of all time.”
Malakian set up the moment by introducing one of the band’s songs with a pointed dedication.
“We have a song about a tapeworm,” Malakian said. “Today, I’m going to name the tapeworm ‘Oasis.'”
He then rallied the massive crowd into a chant directed at the rival band.
“PUUUULL OASIS OUT OF YOUR ASS,” the fans chanted, led by Malakian from the stage.
The incident marks a notable moment of public rivalry between the two rock acts. Malakian used the London stage — in Oasis’ home country — to deliver his response in front of tens of thousands of fans.
The moment did not come out of nowhere. The tension between System of a Down and Oasis stretches back over two decades, and the London show gave Malakian the perfect stage to settle an old score.
Noel Gallagher originally made his dismissive comments about System of a Down in a 2005 NME interview. He branded the band “the shittiest band of all time” and dismissed their music as noise, questioning their artistic merit altogether. The remarks were sharp enough to linger, and Malakian clearly never forgot them.
The anti-Oasis sentiment was not entirely new for System of a Down in London. During the band’s 2001 performance in the city, lead singer Serj Tankian had already taken a jab at Oasis after asking the crowd, “London, do you have an ass?” — a moment that now reads as an early chapter in the same ongoing rivalry.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium show was part of System of a Down’s highly anticipated return to touring after a long hiatus. The massive turnout reflected just how much demand had built up for the band. The crowd’s energy was on full display throughout the night. When Malakian commanded the audience to “bang your head” before the 1998 track Suggestions, the entire stadium moved in perfect sync.
The tapeworm song in question, Suggestions, became the vehicle for Malakian’s revenge. Its anti-addiction themes were repurposed for the night into something far more pointed. With 50,000 voices chanting against Oasis on English soil, Malakian’s response to Gallagher’s two-decade-old insult landed louder than any interview ever could.
