System Of A Down drummer John Dolmayan has said that the COVID-19 pandemic “has always been about money”.

READ MORE: System Of A Down’s new anthems of rebellion are arena-ready calls for justice

Dolmayan has previously been vocal about vaccine mandates and has received criticism for his views on the Black Lives Matter movement, his support for Donald Trump and has stated that people won’t work with him now because of his views.

In February last year, he called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “a moron” in an interview, where he also explained that he’s not a fan of “the agenda of a lot of the Democratic platforms”.

Yesterday (February 27), Dolmayan took to his Instagram to share a Pokémon-related COVID-19 meme, writing: “And just like that covid will slowly go away. This is and has always been about money , covid was about money , Ukraine is about money. Resources equal wealth , stability , and power.”

He added: “Theres a game of chess being played by those in the real positions of power and we’d like to think we’re the pawns but the truth is we’re not even on the board.”

In an interview with NME last year, Serj Tankian discussed working alongside Dolmayan, stating that “a good band always has a lot of dynamics”. Tankian previously said that he had “never seen a president suck so much” as Donald Trump, and continually criticised the former US president during his term in office.

“The political differences became pronounced between John [Dolmayan] and I in the last year through Trump’s re-election campaign, but it’s a new phenomenon,” Tankian said in the interview. “John’s my brother-in-law, as well as my band mate. Find someone who doesn’t have a brother-in-law with a differing political view, and I’ll find you an interesting family.”

He continued: “Some of the bands that create the most elastic, interesting music are ones that have very interesting dynamics between band members. I wouldn’t change that.

“It’s better than four people making what I call ‘corporate music’ where they agree on everything and want to maximise their returns. That’s Pepsi. System Of A Down has never been that. We’re fucking punk rock.”

Last year, Tankian tested positive for COVID-19, which forced the band to postpone a pair of shows in Los Angeles, both of which were alongside Korn, Helmet and Russian Circles. The gigs were rescheduled to February 2022, with a pair of new US headline shows added with Korn.

In other news, last November, Tankian unveiled a new virtual exhibition titled ‘Not For Touching – The Intangible Composition’. Presented by CurioNFT, the collection comprises 21 pieces of work spanning “mergers of art, music, digital paintings and animation”, according to a tweet from Tankian. More information can be found here.

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