SOAD is a complicated one.

Their first album is very angry and very lefty. According to Loudwire, ‘The album cover art of an open hand was based on World War II anti-fascist poster by John Heartfield, a member of the Communist Party of Germany.’ The single Sugar’s music video is a direct criticism of ‘the system’ in the form of a rebellious journalist, who says the following:

‘The key factor is sensationalism.’ ‘They got you running in circles, 9-5 and 5-9 you’re mine.’ ‘I tell you want they want you know, and you consider it the truth.’ ‘Our global economy is depleting the world of its natural resources.’

P.L.U.C.K. features the statement ‘Revolution is the only solution: the armed response of an entire nation’ and, while this is explicitly in reference to Armenian resistance against genocide, it goes to show that SOAD promulgated a message that one needs to take a side and take radical action (a message that is later echoed in Toxicity’s Deer Dance 'We can’t afford to be neutral on a moving train).

You’ve already covered Prison Song, where Serj spits facts about the US prison system; they take the socially liberal view of drug liberalisation that sets them apart from mainstream centre-leftists. Around this time you could also see members like Daron sporting USSR/CCCP jerseys, though that’s probably more for the aesthetic rather than actual political conviction. Mesmerize further reflects discontent with American imperialism (‘Why do they always send the poor?’) as well as celebrity idolisation (Lost in Hollywood).

Serj Tankian is probably the ‘most based’ out of all of them. The song ‘Harakiri’ features an explicitly anti-capitalist message (‘Mother Nature Against Capitalism’) as well as further promoting an environmentalist stance incompatible with capitalist exploitation of natural resources echoed by earlier SOAD songs. Daron on the other hand is a lot more enigmatic; it doesn’t help that his behaviour has always been erratic. He is a fan of Charles Manson, a neo-Nazi cultist, and mourned his passing. He responded negatively to criticism about this with a terrible defence that ultimately indicates ignorance and possibly edginess rather than sincere convictions; however, his affinity for Charles Manson at least dates back to Toxicity (2001) with the song ‘ATWA’ having been named after Charles Manson’s environmental concepts. Shavo seems to be pretty apathetic except for obviously being pro-Armenia like the rest of the band vis à vis Armenia’s struggles. The most problematic one is John Dolmayan, who is an outright Trump supporter who takes umbrage to any criticism directed at his convictions, and often spars with detractors on social media.

It’s pretty well known that Serj and John can’t stand each other’s political views, though they remain respectful towards one another given a shared struggle (ie Armenia and Azerbaijan) as well as their history in the band together. A further point about the song B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bombs) is that, during a live performance, Daron sang the lyric ‘We don’t live in a fascist nation!’, after which Serj exclaimed ‘Yes we do!’ in reference to the Trump Presidency. It’s pretty evident that Serj likes to take the piss out of John’s beliefs and one could argue Daron does as well—whether that’s out of pure edginess or an actual distaste for Trump (or perhaps both) merits more exploration.

To sum this all up:

Serj is pretty based insofar as a ‘mainstream’ celebrity goes. He resembles a kind of ‘popular’ anti-capitalism: pro-Bernie, anti-Trump… His heart is in the right place. The others aren’t so clear, but have taken part in the aforementioned songs and have had some input into the overall message of the band; John is the most egregious offender with his open rejection of everything the band actually stands for despite remaining a member. Serj has also collaborated with RATM who are pretty radical.