System Of A Down are launching pop-up shops with exclusive merch ahead of their huge UK and European tour.
Their European tour will begin in Sweden on June 29, before the metal legends play venues in France, Italy and Germany, and two mammoth nights at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London on July 13 and 15.
They wrap up the tour with a stop in Poland on July 18, and supporting them at all dates will be Queens Of The Stone Age and Acid Bath, with the latter having reformed in 2025 after a 17 year hiatus.
The 2026 shows mark SOAD’s first tour dates in Europe since 2017 and first London gigs since 2015.
Now, ahead of the tour kicking off later this month, Serj Tankian and co have announced some fan shops that are set to launch in five cities along their route.
Open for a limited time and containing exclusive merch, the pop-up shops will be situated in including Stockholm, Paris, Berlin, Düsseldorf and London.
In-store merchandise including tees, hoodies, track jackets, jerseys, shorts and more – as well as some football tops in collaboration with sportswear brand, Hummel.
The stores also coincide with the 25th anniversary of their seminal album, ‘Toxicity’, and will have some commemorative posters and exclusive tour-edition vinyl formats of the album available, with a different vinyl made specifically for each pop-up shop.
Entry will be open between 10am–8pm local time, up to and including the last date of trade, except for the London store, which will operate reduced hours of 11am–5pm on Sunday July 12.
Visit here to book a time slot to visit, find details for each shop below, and visit here for any remaining tickets to the gigs.
System Of A Down fan pop-up shops are:
JUNE
27-30: Stockholm, Sweden (Vasagatan 11, 111 20)
JULY
1-5: Paris, France (23 Rue du Sentier, 75002)
6-9: Berlin, Germany (Bismarckstraße, 103, 10625 Berlin-Bezirk Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf)
8-11: Düsseldorf, Germany (Galerie Voss Mühlengasse 3 40213)
10-16: London, UK (56-57 Eastcastle Street, W1W 8EQ)
Since announcing the UK and EU tour dates, frontman Serj Tankian has said he and his bandmates are currently “having the best time of [their] lives as a band”.
“It’s so, so welcoming – we’re very deeply involved with each other’s lives, personally. It’s what I’ve always wanted the band to be,” he said shortly after concluding the North American leg of the tour. “We had to go back to our own corners, assess things and come back together for us to really appreciate what we have in every way.”
System released their first new songs in 15 years in 2020 – ‘Protect The Land’ and ‘Genocidal Humanoidz’ – after going on hiatus from 2006 to 2010. However, they are yet to record a full-length follow-up to their 2005 albums ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
Last summer, guitarist Daron Malakian spoke to NME about the chances of more new music from the band, and discussed the chemistry between the members.
“All of our personalities are extremely different from one another. We are all very different people,” he told us.
“Even our politics – you can’t base the band’s viewpoints based on what Serj thinks, or what I think, or Shavo [Odadjian] and John [Dolmayan]. I don’t always agree with what Serj thinks, he doesn’t always agree with what John thinks and the same goes for everyone in the band. It’s not a cult, it’s a band, and it’s made up of four different people,” he added.
“But for the first time in a long time, it feels like we went on tour and we all had dinner and laughs together. We all got along and rediscovered our friendship on this last tour and we really enjoyed it. I missed my friends. I’m really happy that we’re all putting things in the past and moving forward, enjoying each other’s company.”
He continued: “That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make a new album, it just means that we’re friends again. It’s the album shit that drives wedges between us.”
In terms of new music, Dolmayan also weighed in and shared the “secret sauce” that he believed would help the band get a new album made.
Tankian has taken a hot-and-cold approach to a new SOAD record too. In October 2024, he said that a new System album would be a “fresh start in a brand new way”, but later revealed that he had been put off recording after becoming “very passive” while working on ‘Mezmerize’ and ‘Hypnotize’.
He then dismissed rumours that System would be teasing a new album with their 2025 tour dates, saying: “There is no album that is written.”