"Mezmerize" is the first of two related, full-length albums from Armenian metallurgists System of a Down; "Hypnotize" is due in the fall, and, if it's anything like this first volley, this is their year. Hands down. Game over.

It's a brilliant and dynamic musical Pollack painting of heavy metal, world music of various ethnicities, freewheeling circus keyboards, operatic-to-cookie-monster vocals (from both Serj Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian), and disco. Yes, disco.

On "B.Y.O.B.," bumblebee guitars lay on a bed of anti-war lyrics ("Why do we always send the poor?"), before giving way to a "Saturday Night Live" backbeat, "Everybody's going to the party, have a real good time/dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine."

The Zappa-schizophrenia and lyrical acumen also flows freely through "Cigaro," "Violent Pornography" and the outrageous "This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song." They haven't lost one iota of their political fearlessness or sense of humor, and that makes them all the more intriguing (not to mention dangerous) when compared to much of their so-called hard-rock brethren.

Eleven snappy tracks at 36:11, and this reviewer would go so far as to say this is the album of the year--right now--if there wasn't another System of a Down album due in the fall.