Honorable Mention - System of a Down

Combining Deftones heaviness with Frank Zappa weirdness (not to mention a generous sprinkling of Rage Against the Machine political activism), System of a Down inhabited a unique spot on the Venn diagram of '00s hard rock. Not many bands could say they were featured on the soundtracks of both ""Fahrenheit 9/11"" and ""Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4."" They scored some success from their 1998 self-titled debut, particularly with ""Spiders"" and its Mansonian video. It was 2001's Toxicity, however, that presented a mass audience with the fully-realized bizarrefest that featured a pharaoh-goateed bassist, a guitarist who coated his torso with elaborate henna and a Borat look-alike for a singer. Much like the Dead Kennedys, the absurdity was a front for a serious message of social justice, and System was at their best when directly taking on issues like the punishment of non-violent offenders (""Prison Song"") or the commercialism of political movements (""Hypnotize""). They embedded their viewpoints into a musical package that was raw, and at various times, droningly deliberate and mathematically fast. It's also worth mentioning that System's members—all four of whom were first-generation Armenian-Americans—gave the country an image of the immigrant experience that was gladly liberated from the inner-city stereotype. In the beginning of the twenty-first century, new Americans just as often end up in endless suburban Sun Belt wastelands, and, to believe vocalist Serj Tankian's bemoaning of ""the toxicity of our city,"" they hate them as much as anyone.