System Of A Down's Hypnotize, much like a quality buffet, has something for everyone. The L.A. quartet has created a musical smorgasbord that draws heavily on melodic pop, rock and ethnic sounds without losing sight of their trademark nü-metal.

Hypnotize is the second half of the double album that began last May with Mesmerize, which debuted at No. 1 on both U.S. and international charts. On Mesmerize, System proved that their 2001 smash Toxicity was no fluke, and Hypnotize continues in the same vein. The album manages to be zany, political and eclectic at the same time, mixing the band's feverish musical vision with a healthy dose of rock.

It's hard to find System's patented sound anywhere else. The band members have the chops to be shredder-metal gods, but opt instead for a dynamically varied approach that reveals a good ear for melody. Throughout their career, System has gotten better and better at creating a balance between the heavy metal and pop sounds in their music, and Mesmerize/Hypnotize is almost perfect to this effect.

Hypnotize starts off with a metal guitar riff reminiscent of the band's hard-rocking early days on "Attack." But the song soon branches out into a newer-sounding quiet groove with a strong vocal melody.

This pattern continues throughout the album. In fact, if there's one problem with Hypnotize, it's the band's tendency to fall back on a similar format for most of the songs. But System does what it does so well, that it doesn't really matter if they do seem to rely on the same old tricks.

That said, Hypnotize features a significant amount of new sounds. The band breaks into a spellbinding section based on a tribal-sounding drum part on the title track that truly makes the album. "Tentative" employs a similarly trippy bridge that sounds almost psychedelic. And in "U-Fig," the band members draw on their Armenian roots by alternating ethnic music doodles with slamming metal riffs.

The lyrics are as strange as ever, with lead singer Serj Tankian making borderline-obscene lines like "Beat the meat, treat the feet / to the sweet, milky seat" somehow work. "Lonely Day," a song about "the most loneliest day of my life," isn't grammatically correct in the least bit, but it doesn't matter. System is easily the only world-famous rock band that could base a song off a refrain about "banana terracotta pie."

But the lyrics aren't all obscure word mash-ups. The final track "Soldier Side" concludes the Mesmerize intro song of the same name with a bleak lyrical picture of a world where "people all grow up to die." This anti-war song perfectly sums up System's political stance.

Just as on Mesmerize, guitarist Daron Malakian makes a heavy lyrical and vocal contribution on Hypnotize, providing a higher counterpoint to Tankian's powerful vibrato. When the two harmonize, as they do on several of Hypnotize's songs, the effect is awesome.

Malakian's guitar flavors have expanded as well. He still uses a distorted metal riff in almost every song, but there are several melodic solos on Hypnotize that are completely different from anything else he's done. On "Lonely Day," he shreds a hair-metal guitar solo that changes the song dynamic completely. Several other songs feature tuneful chord picking that contrasts well with the heavier parts.

Drummer Shavo Odijian provides the kick the heavy metal sections need to take off, but the album also finds him a new, groove-based mode. After a few minutes of abruptly shifting time signatures, a slow drum groove is exactly what the listener needs to stay interested, and Odijian rarely fails to deliver.

Despite the refinements System has added to Hypnotize, the older elements of their sound are still present. The guitar section of "Holy Mountains" harkens back to Toxicity's "Aerials," and "Hypnotize" has the same charisma of the band's hit single "Toxicity."

All in all, System has managed to make an album that shows off their traditional strengths while still sounding fresh. Though some fans may prefer the earlier stuff, it has to be acknowledged that the band's creative engine is still running.

Hypnotize is an album that can sell copies and push the musical envelope at the same time. It's exactly the album System Of A Down needed to establish themselves as one of the great rock bands of our era, and Hypnotize leaves no doubt in this respect.

Grade: A