Soil

System guitarist Daron Malakian, who wrote this song with lead singer Serj Tankian, introduced it in concert by saying, "This song is about death, and friends that die, and life that dies." In the song, Tankian sings about a troubled friend who uses a gun to end his life.

Soil was the name of Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian's band before they formed System Of A Down. That word doesn't appear in the lyric, which isn't uncommon for SOAD.

This is one of System Of A Down's first songs. They played it at their first gigs when they started performing in 1995, and included it on their first album in 1998. That self-titled album was produced by Rick Rubin, who signed the band. They took a while to catch on, but after touring for a solid year (including on Ozzfest), System expanded their fanbase far beyond Los Angeles, where they started, and became one of the biggest metal bands in America. Their run as a recording artist was brief: After their 2005 album Hypnotize, they didn't release any new material until 2020, when they returned with two new songs ("Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz" in support of Armenia, their ancestral land.