Scars On Broadway Release Their Debut Self Titled Album

In what has been years in the making, Scars On Broadway have officially released their highly anticipated debut self titled album and the band kicked it off in style with a free show at the historic Union Station in Los Angeles. Scars On Broadway, which is the brain child of musical mastermind Daron Malakian formerly of System Of A Down, also features fellow System Of A Down alumni John Dolmayan on drums. The band, which is rounded out by Franky Perez, Danny Shamoun and Dominic Cifarelli, tore through a 40 min set that included their first single "They Say" and a barrage of high octane songs that showcased the dynamic range and intelligent song writing of Scars On Broadway.

Video clip :

We caught up with John Dolmayan just before the band hit the stage to get his thoughts on the idea behind celebrating the release of their album by playing such a historic venue like Union Station in Los Angeles.

 John Dolmayan On Performing For Free At Union Station

"We definitely wanted to do something in L.A. since we're from L.A. but they were looking at a couple of different locations. Union Station was an option and I thought Griffith Park Observatory would have been pretty cool too but we couldn't make that happen. So Union Station is pretty historic and I guess it's a cool place to kick it off."

We also spoke with Daron Malakian, who wrote all the songs and performs all the instruments but drums on Scars On Broadway's debut album, to find out if he feels relieved to finally have the album finished after working hard on the project for so long.

 Daron Malakian On Working Harder Now That Album Is Done

"No, we're working harder now promoting the record and getting ready to leave home. That's always kind of tough for me. I'm not really like a, I don't go out and party very much so leaving home is always a bit stressful for me when I go on the road. There's some stresses that are still there, but the writing part is done and the album is done. I'm proud of it. It feels good. It feels good to play live."

After so many successful albums, tours and years in System Of A Down, John Dolmayan also talked about having a special bond with the members of Scars On Broadway on stage in just a short amount of time.

 Scars On Broadway Has Something Special On Stage

"We did it once but of course there's no guarantees that we're going to have the same success with Scars, but the bottom line is all we are thinking about is going out and playing shows and making the best music we can then everything else will just happen or it won't. That's not really up to us because we can only do what we're capable of doing. So we feel like we put together a good album. We have in my opinion a great band and we have a lot of fun on stage and I think people will pick up on that. To be honest with you, If a band doesn't sound better live than they do on an album than I don't think they are worth listening to. I think that Scars definitely has something that is special on stage."

Scars On Broadway will kick off a European run of tour dates August 29th in Paris, France and extending until September 21st in Manchester, U.K. Look for the band to announce a run of North American tour dates in the near future.

In releated news, Scars On Broadway played a CD-release show this past Monday (July 28) at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Watch performance footage of the song "They Say" here (courtesy of Altitude). Also available is a short interview excerpt in which Malakian states that "nobody's really talking about going back to System right now."

Comments

[Fusanti_RHCP]

WOOT! Can't wait for them to come to chicago

[Metallicaloveu]

Seeing them in London! Woo!

[brantley23]

already have the album, pretty rockin, sounds a lot like mez/hyp albums missing of course serj on vocals. on some songs you can literally hear him in your head doing backing vocals or whatever. but good album nevertheless

[MAYNARD]

The album is a pretty big let down. Better than serj's hunk of turd, but still not anywhere near the caliber of System.

[dermischa]

Like the germans say:

es saugt! (it sucks)

[zombiekangaroo]

yea, its not as good as system, but i like it, "stoner hate" is my fav song on the album, actually, the day i went to buy the album (22nd release date) me and the employee at the cd store had a fight on whether system sucked or not, i won, system rules

btw, do u guys think system will get back together and make another album, i dont want a one off show, i mean like, a whole nother album

[Pierced Brosnan]

Cool, the albums good, probably not as strong as System was but I don't think they'll probably ever surpass System, and they have to move on at some point and do different stuff anyway. And if System don't reunite to another album it'll be ok as there'll be the respective 'side projects' which are good.

[KingCheesehead]

Or as I like to call it, "SoaD Lite".

[nirvana4lf]

dermischa wrote:

Like the germans say:

es saugt! (it sucks)

go germans!

[DarkLordArthur]

i actually liked a lot, i mean, it's not like system but hey!: it is not system, like daron said, it's more aimed to rock than to metal so i wasn't expecting it to sound like system.

[zbest]

thier live preformance sucked.

[PumpkinHead94]

i actually love the cd and can't wait for them to come somewhere near me. Daron did alright.

[MegaRon]

I'm kind of mixed on the album. I mean, it has its moments, but it's not as good as Serj's album, I thought. Though, to be fair, it took a while for Serj's album to grow on me, the same might be true for Scars.

[darkfire_storm]

i just checked out their myspace page, and now i remember why i don't like new system. daron started singing. it ruined things for me. and now he's got a band where he does the vocals all the time. fantastic. i tried to give it a chance, but it's just not that good in my opinion. i'll stick to toxicity.

[therescue06]

darkfire_storm wrote:

i just checked out their myspace page, and now i remember why i don't like new system. daron started singing. it ruined things for me. and now he's got a band where he does the vocals all the time. fantastic. i tried to give it a chance, but it's just not that good in my opinion. i'll stick to toxicity.

couldntve put it in better words myself.

[blasphemus666]

i dont know why everyone is so caught up with system. THIS ISNT SYSTEM!!! THIS IS SCARS ON BORADWAY! daron and john are trying to move on and start something new. theyre not trying to be like soad. theyre trying to be scars on broadway and i happen to like it. its definately different, but i still like it and i respect them for not being afraid to start something new

[Symmetry4321]

I like Scars, i like Serj's solo stuff, i like SOAD, i have no problem with any of it as thi aga just seems to give us so much really good music

[|Heretic|]

I agree with the post above. System, Scars and Serj are all good, just different. I can see where Darron has progressed as a song writer from mezmerise/hypnotize, and I really like the album. Gonna go see them in birmingham

[0h The Horror]

Maybe it would get a better overall response if it was any good.
Maybe.

[Spanky209]

I really hate Daron Malakian's singing, but hopefully this band is a way he can get it all out of his system before the next soad album.

[Outshined]

I think Daron is really an incredible song writer and guitar player but his voice just doesn't do it for me at all...'loniest day" or whatever that song was called was literally the worst piece of crap I've ever heard and I think I will have to pass on Scars....

Check't.

[KingCheesehead]

blasphemus666 wrote:

i dont know why everyone is so caught up with system. THIS ISNT SYSTEM!!! THIS IS SCARS ON BORADWAY! daron and john are trying to move on and start something new. theyre not trying to be like soad. theyre trying to be scars on broadway and i happen to like it. its definately different, but i still like it and i respect them for not being afraid to start something new

But it isn't really that different from System...

[blasphemus666]

KingCheesehead wrote:

But it isn't really that different from System...

except for the fact that its not. i think if everybody listened to it without thinking about daron and johns past, then they would like it a lot more because this ISNT system and when they recorded it, they werent trying to be anything but themselves.

[alexw1020]

I have no problem with Daron singing because I never really thought Serj was that good. I expect to get cursed at now.

[Lauri]

brantley23 wrote:

already have the album, pretty rockin, sounds a lot like mez/hyp albums missing of course serj on vocals. on some songs you can literally hear him in your head doing backing vocals or whatever. but good album nevertheless

I was gonna say exactly that

[ChicNStu0017]

love it

[SOADriff]

the cd was pretty awesome even though it was repetitive

[[x]Huffy[x]]

This is just System-lite to me.
His vocals made me remember why I hate newer SOAD stuff.


BRING BACK SYSTEM!

[Into_Eternity23]

I loved the CD!! but I actually need new System stuff. I'm hoping something new will come out around 2010, because Serj is already planning for another album for 2009. And hopefully they come back stronger and make an album thats like SYstem Of A Down and Toxicty.

[Till From Kenig]

thtr

[Keyphur]

i would give it bout a 5.5/10
not nearly what I hoped for to say the least, the album definitely has its moments, but i find it incredibly repetitive and Daron's voice is nasally and annoying, IMO

i still like it better than Dragonforce's newest attempt

[InsomniaRocks]

I really had nothing against Daron's singing in the two new System cds... I thought it took them in a worthwhile and different/interesting direction. Their sense of evolving their sound has been very good, imo.

However, I really don't like SoB's debut that much. I think one of my main complaints is that with Daron singing and playing the guitar parts and the whole song structure is a little too simplistic and uncreative for what I was expecting of him. What I liked about SoaD was his creative and often extremely unique and distinctive guitar meshing up with Serj's unique style of singing. For me, this cd strips off the parts of his playing that I liked the best.