SYSTEM OF A DOWN To Release Collection Of Outtakes

SYSTEM OF A DOWN have set Steal This Album as the title to their upcoming CD of Toxicity outtakes and other previously unreleased tracks that span the band's career, due later this year.

"We had a bunch of songs in the vault left over from Toxicity as well as before and we've always wanted to do something with them," singer Serj Tankian told MTV.com. "When the songs were leaked onto the Internet in an unfinished and unmixed form, it made me want to not wait another two years to release them. It compelled me as an artist to say, 'This is not how it's supposed to sound. I want you to hear how it's supposed to sound.' "

Steal This Album, which will include between 12 and 17 songs, will feature packaging made to look like a home burn. There will be no CD booklet or tray insert in the clear jewel box, and album credits will be accessible only by inserting the disc into a computer drive and visiting a special web site.

"There's some really, really cool new stuff," Tankian said. "There are a lot of interludes, which makes the presentation more interesting than just a host of songs that go well together. So it's gonna give a different taste than SYSTEM albums. It's also gonna give new colors and [a taste of] things that might possibly come from SYSTEM in the future.

"Some of these songs are better than some songs on Toxicity, but when you're doing a record you gotta form a picture," he added. "When you've got 30-something songs and you're planning to release only 12 or 13 of them, you gotta see which ones fit together. So a song that might be great, like 'Innervision', didn't make the album because it didn't fit as well as another song."