Scars On Broadway - Scars On Broadway Review

Posted by Dan Marsicano on 07.30.2008

System of a Down members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan have teamed up for a new project, Scars on Broadway. Will their debut album heal the pain of System of a Down fans longing for a re-union of the band?

The Band

Daron Malakian-Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboards
John Dolmayan-Drums, Percussion



The Track Listing

1. Serious-2:08
2. Funny-2:55
3. Exploding/Reloading-2:15
4. Stoner-Hate-2:00
5. Insane-3:07
6. World Long Gone-3:16
7. Kill Each Other/Live Forever-3:05
8. Babylon-3:56
9. Chemicals-3:13
10. Enemy-3:03
11. Universe-4:15
12. 3005-2:54
13. Cute Machines-3:03
14. Whoring Streets-3:01
15. They Say-2:48





The Review

Scars on Broadway is a new project from System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian, who brought drummer John Dolmayan along for the ride. When System of a Down went on an indefinite hiatus back in 2006, the band members decided to explore their creative sides. Singer Serj Tankian is currently achieving success as a solo artist, while bassist Shavo Odadjian is collaborating with Wu-Tank Clan member RZA. For Daron, the hiatus gave him an opportunity to use some of the extra material he had recorded over the past couple of years. Scars on Broadway is a rock album that doesn’t stay in one direction for very long, as Daron mixes hard rock, metal, punk, new wave, and classic rock into one cohesive package that has Daron finally finding his true voice.

Scars on Broadway wastes no time, opening with three energetic rockers in “Serious,” “Exploding/Reloading” and “Stoner-Hate.” Each of these songs are quick, fast, and quirky, with a heavy keyboard/organ presence and a System of a Down vibe to them. The noticeable improvement is in Malakian’s vocals, which are greatly improved over the spotty performance he gave on Hypnotize and Mezmerize.

Experimentation is the name of the game throughout Scars On Broadway. Daron makes sure to change styles up quite a bit, which keeps the album at a brisk pace. While the first couple of tracks are short and to the point (not including the brilliant “Funny,” which wouldn’t be out of place in a Clint Eastwood movie, if it had an 80’s New Wave soundtrack), Scars on Broadway slows things down quite a bit near the end of the first half of the album, which is where the little flaws begin to work their way to the surface.

The problems mainly lie in the songwriting. I’ve always considered Daron to be a good songwriter, but on Scars On Broadway, he has a tendency to repeat himself…a lot. On “World Long Gone,” he repeats the same verse/chorus three times in a three minute period. He does that again on the next track “Kill Each Other/Live Forever.” I don’t mind songs having a standard verse/chorus progression, but Daron goes into overkill at times with repeating the lyrics. On the shorter songs, it is not as noticeable, but when he stretches song lengths beyond three minutes, the shortcomings become more apparent.

The second half of the album is much stronger than the first half. You have your epic “Holy Mountains”-like songs (“Babylon,” “Universe,” “Whoring Streets”), your weird/kooky songs (“Chemicals,” “3005”), and a solid punk-ish closing track (“They Say”). There’s even a song with blastbeats in it (“Cute Machines”) that came out of nowhere. The material is much stronger, the repetition is less noticeable, and the lyrics go from deep to over-the-top craziness, especially on “Chemicals,” which has my favorite chorus on the album:

“Madness, feeling scared
Looking around and nobody there
When I say fuck the world
Let’s get ready to rock
As I piss on your face
While you suck on my cock.”

Fans of System of a Down have been quite vocal when it comes to Daron’s increased vocal presence on later releases. Personally, I thought he was decent, but couldn’t compare to Serj’s range and talent. However, on Scars On Broadway, Daron has pushed himself to the limit and showed that he has the ability to actually sing well. If you weren’t a fan before, Scars On Broadway probably won’t change your mind, but for any SOAD fans who were in the middle or loved his vocals, you will adore his performance on Scars On Broadway. His guitar playing is good as always and the keyboards are used to augment a song, instead of hindering it. John’s drumming is solid, and while he doesn’t get many chances to go off (with the exception of the technically-proficient drum solo on “Cute Machines”), John shows that he is the backbone of the band.

Scars On Broadway is an album with both its high and low points. Fans of System of a Down will probably enjoy this release, as long as they don’t mind Daron’s vocals. Some people will hear this and long for the re-union of System of a Down. While I wouldn’t argue with them, it sounds like the band members are doing fine being away from each other for an extended period of time. Scars On Broadway suffers from repetition and less-than-stellar tracks on the first half, but there is enough solid material on display to show that Daron looks to be fine without his former band.

The 411: Scars On Broadway is an album filled with both brillant songs and missed opportunities. Some of the material is the best that Daron Malakian has ever written, while other songs will make you go "Why did he waste his time with this piece of shit?" If you hated Daron's vocals, this album won't change your mind, but if you enjoyed his contributions to System of a Down's later material, you will appreciate Scars On Broadway. If Daron can cut the repetition down and focus on 11 or 12 solid tracks instead of 15 tracks of varying quality, Scars On Broadway could be looking at a bright future ahead.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]