Steal This Album!

is the third album by System of a Down. Produced by Rick Rubin and Daron Malakian, Steal This Album! was recorded in mid-2002 and released on November 26, 2002 by American Recordings. The album reached No. 15 in the Billboard Top 200.

This album was released shortly after a collection of medium-quality MP3s found their way onto the Internet under the unofficial name Toxicity II, a year after the release of the group’s multi-platinum record, Toxicity. The band issued a statement expressing their disappointment that their fans were hearing unfinished material, and released the finished versions of the leaked material. Most, but not all tracks from the original leak (e.g. “Cherry”) made it onto Steal This Album!, and three new tracks such as “Roulette” were also added. Many song titles, lyrics, and melodies were changed, making the new album significantly different from the unfinished product.

Though often reported in the media as being a collection of B-sides and outtakes, the band insists that the Steal This Album! material is of the same quality as the tracks which made it onto Toxicity. Vocalist Serj Tankian has said that the songs were left out of Toxicity “because they didn’t fit the overall continuity of the album”.

The album title is a reference to Abbie Hoffman’s book Steal This Book, which is regarded by many as a classic example of counterculture literature. A similar title (“Steal This Movie!”) was used for a movie about Hoffman’s life. A year prior to this album however, The Suicide Machines had already released an album titled Steal This Record.