Khachaturian left the band

After the split, Tankian, Odadjian and Malakian formed System of a Down, named after a poem Malakian wrote called Victims of a Down (which was later featured on the back-side of the band-to-be’s self-titled debut ). The band recruited drummer Ontronik “Andy” Khachaturian, an old school friend of Malakian, and Odadjian who had played with Malakian in a band called Snowblind during their teens. In mid-1997, Khachaturian left the band because of a hand injury (he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan). Khachaturian was replaced by John Dolmayan . Dolmayan is also the drummer for the band Indicator and former drummer for Scars on Broadway .