In the last bulletin from System of a Down on Myspace you can now read that Velvet Hammer, the management of System and Scars on Broadway, is looking for the biggest Soad Fan in the world. They want the Fans to show in one picture why they're System's number one Fan. The big prize is "a genuine System Of A Down All Access laminate from their last headline tour - the 2005 Tour of the Americas. It is a one-of-a-kind collector’s item personalized for their manager, Beno, and we want you to have it.". The whole contests runs until October 27, 2008.
This looks like the normal contest a management starts for their bands. It's quite commons at bands like the Jonas Brothers or Tokio Hotel. System of a Down have been always dealed a bit different, although they had to obey many Meet&Greets and there were a lot of big SOAD prizes in 8 years of band history/success.
All in all nothing to make a big deal out of it, if not...
Yes, if not one fact would stand out and make that whole contest looking like a huge cover up. System of a Down are on hiatus. For 2 years they're on hiatus and they're doing their own musically things. So why should anyone start fan-contests of a band that won't come together within the next weeks to congratulate the winner? A band that doesn't exist at the moment in real, only on paper?
An answer to this question might be, that this contest was made by Velvet Hammer and the prize is something from the belongings of Beno himself. As mentioned before Velvet Hammer does also care for Scars on Broadway, who, through a "personal issue" of Daron cancelled their whole US tour a few days ago. Maybe it's brazen to say that, but it looks like this very special contest is supposed to cover that a whole tour was cancelled. To give the fans something they can think of instead of worrying about how to get the money for the tickets back.
Another possibilty is that all those people who cried that System of a Down will never be back are wrong. Maybe this is kind of a new start.
Maybe we see System back as System sooner than we thought it would.
Whatever this contest means, I don't know it. And I also don't want you to start rumours about things, that haven't been stated. But this all should make us think. We all have to look out for whatever comes next, it could be better than we thought.
-Brad Killerguitar