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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
System man rocks out , 28 Jul 2008
Let's not over-analyse things here. Scars on Broadway's debut album is everything you'd expect from a band featuring two members of System of a Down - one of the most distinctive-sounding metal bands of the last ten years. Having played second fiddle to vocalist Serj Tankian for much of his career, guitarist Daron Malakian assumes the role of frontman and sole songwriter for this, and is joined by sticksman John Dolmayan for a fifteen track-album of spiky, melody-infused anthems. Rather more 'rocky' than Tankian's recent solo effort, and a touch less wacky, it contains an abundance of hooks and lyrics that would quite easily fit onto a System of a Down record, and you get the impression that these are simply ideas that Malakian was unable to fully explore during his day job. Thematically, the songs appear to be linked by Malakian's sense of disgust and despair at the corruption, greed, decadence and decay by which he's surrounded, and these concerns manifest themselves either in the form of all-out attack ('Serious', 'Stoner Hate') or moments of troubled introspection ('Insane', 'World Long Gone').
Elsewhere, the usual references proliferate (Charles Manson, 'drugs', Jesus Christ) and there are no huge departures or great surprises, and yes, one or two tracks pass by with a sense of 'ho-hum'. But there is more than enough here to get excited by. The middle triumvirate of 'Kill Each Other/Live Forever', 'Babylon' and 'Chemicals' fizzes by in superb style, swiftly followed by two of the best songs Malakian's written: 'Enemy' and '3005', the latter delivered in an uncharacteristic Southern drawl. Oh, the irony...
To dismiss Scars... for sounding like System of a Down, 'only not as good', would be churlish, and indeed, wholly inaccurate, for this has a different feel to a System record despite the familiarity of many of its defining characteristics, and many of the songs rival those of SOAD in terms of quality and invention. And despite that band's overwhelming achievements, this is likely to be more than a mere footnote in the annals of rock history. Get it now and find out why...
Matt Pucci
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very decent effort, 5 Aug 2008
So Daron Malakian is the Renaissance Man! He can sing, play guitar, bass, keyboards, melotron, etc. Presumably not all at the same time, so some nice employment for session guys when they go on tour.
Serj moves to new Zealand so Daron goes it alone. Th results are really much better than I had feared. Daron has a more than passable voice, although lacking the sheer power of Serj's. Musically he is highly capable, an excellent technical player and a quality songwriter. Overall a quality effort with some interesting and eccentric lyrical diversions. Personally I think Stoner Hate is the best song on the album.
Overall it's very good but not brilliant. A solid effort full of eclectic whimsy but lacking any really killer tracks.
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3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
picks up where system of a down left off, 29 Jul 2008
scars on broadway sounds almost like system of a down in its hypnotise/mesmerize era. its pretty much system of a down minus serj tankian. The lack of serj tankian means a lack of political lyrics, and while serj tankian seems to have been the seriousness behind system of a down (just look at daron malakian messing around in their concerts!), i was expecting almost every song on this album to be like 'cigaro' or 'bounce' i was rather suprised as songs like 'they say' and 'serious' are more...well serious. While Serj Tankians solo effort elect the dead sounded very different from system of a down, scars of broadway is like system of a down minus serj and the politics. Just think of it like the seperation of blink 182. +44 continues where blink 182 left off and angels and airwaves went in a new(er) direction. Scars on broadway is a good album, but it strays a bit too close to system of a down for my liking.
just treat this album like a system of a down album and you will like it. If mesmerize/hypnotise was a 3 cd series, this would be the 3rd cd in it.
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