"B.Y.O.B." (Bring Your Own Bombs) is a Grammy Award-winning song and the first single released from System of a Down's fourth album Mezmerize. Its title is a play on the phrase "Bring Your Own Booze", "Bring Your Own Beer" or "Bring Your Own Bottle". It is a politically charged song and was written to protest the war in Iraq.

"B.Y.O.B." was released as downloadable content in the video game Rock Band on August 5th, 2008. It is also to be included in the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour game.

Awards

• "B.Y.O.B." won the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category in the 2006 Grammy Awards.
• The track was the band's only Top 30 hit off Mezmerize peaking at #27.
• It was voted #76 in Total Guitar's 100 Greatest Riffs.

Music video

The music video shows an army of drone soldiers marching through the streets, wearing masks that show words such as "DIE", "BUY", "TRUTH", "OBEY" and "GOD" like a television screen, with the members of System of a Down playing in the middle of the venue. The scenes of the soldiers marching is reminiscent of Nazis marching in formation. During the chorus, the band is shown playing inside a night club (the scene is reminiscent of the Club Hel scene in The Matrix Revolutions). Midway through the video, Daron is shown screaming the words "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation! Blast off! It's party time! And where the fuck are you?!", when the soldiers attack the night club and force everyone to put on the drone masks (paintball masks) that the soldiers have been wearing, except they depict various television shows and cartoons. At the end of the video, the members of System of a Down are wearing the drone masks, which seem to be playing static.

Live performance

The song was performed on May 7, 2005 on Saturday Night Live, 10 days before the release of the album Mezmerize. During this performance, towards the end of the song (during the downward guitar slide, following the line "Why do they always send the poor?"), guitarist Daron Malakian screamed, "Fuck yeah!". This was missed by television censors, and it became a controversial matter for a few days thereafter. However, the rest of the song was able to be censored on time without any trouble.

When performed at the MTV Europe Music Awards, the line "And we don't live in a fascist nation" was changed to "This ain't no bullshit political punk rock". A reference towards Green Day.

Track listing

B.Y.O.B. (promo single)

B.Y.O.B. (enhanced single)

• The live tracks were recorded at the Big Day Out 2005 festival.

B.Y.O.B. (Australian import)

External links

• Listen to B.Y.O.B. at the band's official website

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