Daron Malakian - ON METAL (Part 2)

Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin

Arts, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Daron Malakian returns to continue his conversation in Part Two. Composer, guitarist, vocalist, and record producer Daron Malakian, a founding member of System of a Down, reflects on his lifelong relationship with heavy metal. Using music as a guide to discuss how different styles, sounds, and eras shaped his identity as an artist, he talks through what he listens for in metal, including riffs, mood, aggression, and atmosphere, and how those elements influenced his own songwriting and creative direction. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: LMNT Electrolytes https://DrinkLMNT.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Athletic Nicotine https://www.AthleticNicotine.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Squarespace https://Squarespace.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

Transcript

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0:00.0	So when I'm
0:02.0	Tetrogrammiton
0:03.0	So when I was like 12 or 13 at that point, I had been playing the guitar for like a year,
0:30.6	I was with these guys in my school that we would, in their dad's garage, we would play Metallica covers.
0:38.3	That's pretty much all we'd play, a bunch of Metallica covers.
0:41.3	And that's kind of a big part of how I learned how to play the guitar
0:44.3	was playing either Sabbath, Metallica, Maiden, Sometimes Slayer.
0:49.3	My friends really didn't get Slayer, but they loved Metallica.
0:54.6	Understood.
0:55.4	But I love Slayer and I would fight with them over it.
0:58.3	But we would play these Metallica covers, so I knew all these Metallica covers.
1:02.9	As, you know, when I got older, I knew them.
1:05.4	And so we were on tour with Metallica on the summer sanitarium tour.
1:09.4	I met Metallica on stage.
1:12.0	Really?
1:12.8	Playing with them.
1:13.8	I never met them before.
1:15.4	Wow.
1:16.2	We're the first band.
1:18.1	Nobody knows us.
1:19.1	It's 1999 maybe at this point.
1:22.1	Toxicity's not out yet.
	...

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