B.Y.O.B.

This song is about the business behind war, and how privileged politicians start them, but expect the poor to fight them. Creedence Clearwater Revival made the same point - then dealing with the Vietnam War - on their 1970 hit "Fortunate Son."

"B.Y.O.B." is a term that means "Bring Your Own Booze." It is often used on party invitations if no alcohol will be served, but you are free to bring your own. In this case, it stands for "Bring Your Own Bombs."

This was the lead single from Mezmerize, the fourth System Of A Down album and first since Steal This Album! three years earlier. They had enough material for a double album, but decided to split the songs into two albums and release them six months apart, a strategy inspired by Quentin Tarantino, who released Kill Bill: Volume 1 in October 2003, then put out Kill Bill: Volume 2 six months later. Just as it would have been too much for even the biggest Tarantino fans to sit through four hours of his work in one sitting, a double-helping of System would be overwhelming. It was a good call: both albums debuted at #1 in the US, giving them two #1 albums in 2005. The band toured into 2006, but split up, eager to work on other projects. When they got back together in 2010, they found they could perform live together but had a much harder time recording, and another album never materialized (but if it does, it should definitely be called Materialize.