When System Of A Down announced they were going on hiatus to pursue other projects, everyone was interested to see what would happen next. Serj Tankian came up trumps, with his occasionally difficult but never dull Elect The Dead, but how would Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan‘s Scars On Broadway? First impressions are good, if familiar.
‘Serious’ is a frenetic opener that will remind you of their previous band, but with ‘Funny’ such comparisons cannot be made; run through with electronics, it’s not quite what youd expect but turns out to be one of the albums highlights. Overall, however, the SOAD connection is a little overwhelming. Understandable when there’s two members present, but tracks like ‘Stoner Hate’ and the utterly bonkers ‘Exploding/reloading’ do very little to distance Scars On Broadway from the band that preceded it.
That’s not to say this makes it a bad album, it’s just that in the same way Tankian‘s finest moment was ‘The Unthinking Majority’ – Elect The Dead‘closest moment to SOAD – the best parts of this self-titled release are when they crank up the speed and the lunacy. As a ‘next project’, it may have been an idea to try and move away from this frantic metallic style, but when they get more streamlined and less off-the-wall, as they do on tracks such as ‘Babylon’ and ‘3005’, it just gets a little dull. However, the exception here is the fantastic ‘They Say’, which may seem like System with Daron on vocals, but is a far more concise song and the album’s driving, shining moment. With more along the same lines, they could have a future where they will be written about without System Of A Down being mentioned in every bleedin’ paragraph.
3/5
Phill Harmonic 