System Of a Down will be operating again in 2013.

The group has announced its first two concerts for the New Year -- August 9 at the Getaway Rock Festival in Sweden and August 16 at Austria's Frequency Festival.

The group has been playing together since ending a four-year hiatus in 2010, and frontman Serj Tankian tells us that System has been "having a blast, actually, touring together. I think we sound better than we've ever sounded as a band and people are reacting really well and it's been an amazing trip doing this stuff."

So what about the prospects for a new album, System's first since 2005’s “Hypnotize?”

"As far as a future potential System record, we have not really put anything on the books," Tankian says. "We haven't really discussed anything. We're all doing our own thing. We've never done anything to hurt the name of the band and the way we're perceived, in as much as we can have any control over perception. We want to keep it special, so when the time is right we'll get together and talk." 

Tankian released a new solo album, "Harakiri," in 2012 and is developing a symphonic piece called "Orca." Guitarist Daron Malakian, meanwhile, is working on a proposed EP and album by his other band, Scars On Broadway.

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