Harakiri (album)
2012 studio album by Serj Tankian
Harakiri is the third studio album by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. It was released on July 10, 2012 as a follow-up to his 2010 album Imperfect Harmonies.
The album also constitutes the first of four then-upcoming albums, the other three being Orca, Jazz-Iz-Christ and Fuktronic.
Background
Tankian has described the album as "the most up-tempo punk rock oriented record that I've written probably since the System days." In the same interview, he also confirmed that a 2013 world tour would likely follow in support of the album.
Hara-kiri, also known as seppuku, is a term for the ritual 'honour' suicide of Japanese samurai, with the former term being more common in speech and the latter being more literary, upper-class, and formal. The act involves self-disembowelment with a tantō (a Japanese-style dagger originating in the Heian period), slicing the abdomen from left to right. The album explores ideas of animal suicide.
Recording and composition
As his two previous releases, the album was produced by Tankian himself at his own studio in Los Angeles. Harakiri differs from previous releases as three songs featured in it were initially sketched out on Tankian's iPad. He has himself declared that "we must trick ourselves into writing in different ways to get unexpected results".
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1416704. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2010 and 2013.
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