Nine years ago, Mother Nature and heavy metal combined for a truly glorious moment.
As part of their 2015 ‘Wake Up The Souls’ tour, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, System Of A Down were performing in Yerevan, Armenia when lightning struck at the very climax of their tune ‘Aerials’.
Unfortunately for the 40,000 in attendance at the free concert, they could not see the moment as the bolt occurred behind them. However, the band was facing it and a camera filming them from behind captured a truly epic shot.
Footage of the moment is going viral again after a SOAD fan page reshared it. Commenters on the post are all in agreement that it’s actually insane that it happened.
“I get goosebumps. Every. Single. Time,” wrote one person.
“The saddest part is that the crowd didn’t see it,” said another.
“Mother Nature didn't even charge a fee for her part,” a third added. “What a Queen.”
“It’s the electromagnetic force from them rocking the fuck out,” one more wrote.
It seems ‘Aerials’ brings out truly special moments for SOAD, as a couple of years ago band members Serj Tankian and John Dolmayan joined some musician fans for a performance of the song.
Cover band Médium were booked to play at a restaurant in Mexico where Dolmayan was celebrating his 50th birthday with friends and family.
Dolmayan, in a proper birthday spirit, was already behind the drumkit when the footage started. Tankian’s wife, Angela (whose sister is the wife of Dolmayan, making the two bandmates brothers-in-law), has to encourage the vocalist to get behind the microphone.
Just goes to show that if any band deserves a collab with a God damn lightning strike, it's SOAD.
