System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian Announces New Band and Releases Their First Track

System of a Down’s Shavo Odadjian has announced his new band, Seven Hours After Violet, and their debut single, “Paradise.”

Watch the video for “Paradise” below:

In addition to Odadjian, Seven Hours After Violet band members are singer Taylor Barber (Left to Suffer), guitarist Morgoth (Winds of Plague, producer), singer-guitarist Alejandro Aranda (Scarypoolparty, American Idol), and drummer Josh Johnson (Winds of Plague).

In a recent press release, Odadjian discussed the new track, “Paradise,” stating, “The song opens the album and showcases the various dynamics we explore throughout which makes it the perfect introduction to Seven Hours After Violet. I’ve been making music for over 30 years, I wanted to do something super heavy, but melodic and come back to my roots. Until this band, every side project I’ve done has been outside of the walls of heavy music.”

He continue, “I steered away from anything heavy because System of a Down is heavy. Once I started with Seven Hours After Violet, I had to let go of that. I said, ‘Let me go with my gut and do what I’m best at.’ For the first time ever in my career, I just said, ‘As long as I love it, I don’t give a fuck what anybody else thinks,’ and that was extremely liberating. Seven Hours After Violet is the result. It’s my favorite thing I’ve done since System and I can’t wait for the world to hear it.”

As of yet, there has been no announcement regarding an upcoming album, but from Odadjian’s statement, it seems there might be one on the way. Odadjian has also announced he has launched his own imprint, 1336 Records, in partnership with Sumerian Music Group.

“I didn’t just want to sign the band to a label, which is why we signed the deal with Ash Avildsen and Sumerian,” says Odadjian. “I now have my new imprint called 1336 Records. It gives me a lot of creative control and also the ability to bring other acts that I find interesting on board later in the future, so I’m really excited about that.”

Seven Hours After Violet are slated to play their first live show at the Mayhem Fest, a one-day festival October 12th in San Bernardino, CA.