Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
Scars On Broadway are a brand new band featuring System of a Down members, the enigmatic, Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan attempting to show that they are capable to go out there and take on the rock world with their own brand of melodic rock with the occasional hints of their previous band. There is no doubting their abilities as musicians but how does the fifteen track self titled album fair without Shavo and Serj helping them out?
Well, there is certainly some amount of System of a Down style on some of the songs which will no doubt keep their army of fans more than satisfied but there is more, there is a genuine effort to create a different sound too. The opening three tracks track are a great case as to what the album is like, “Serious” is a mixture of fast paced rock with the occasional subtle melodic vocals thrown in. “Funny” the second track is a softer song with some different sounding keyboards and with the third track “Exploding / Relocating” more on the SOAD style of song.
Strangely the stand out track on the album is the last of the fifteen, “They Say”. Obviously we have all heard of saving the best to last but very rarely do you get to see that put into practice, especially on a debut album. Other tracks worthy of praise include “Chemicals” which is a Zappa-esque electro punk song including the chorus of “Come eat some chemicals with me”. I shall leave it up to your imagination as to what they are refereeing to.
There are moments during some of the early to middle of the album songs where when they do the more rockier songs it does at times sound like a bit too much like German metal from the 1980’s. Thankfully these times are small in number.
All in all a good album, possibly a few tracks do drag and are a little yawn-some. However, if you liked SOAD then you really have to get Scars on Broadway too! They are here in September playing four dates in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London. Fans of System of a Down really do not want to miss out.