Scars on Broadway is an American rock band created by the experienced musicians of System of a Down. The guitarist and drummer of the group have been creating "side" projects for a long time, recording joint tracks outside the main group, but there was no serious "promotion".
Despite this, both the existence of the group and the solo project of System of a Down vocalist Serj Tankian caused considerable excitement - the fans did not want their favorite group to break up and the musicians to go into free swimming.
History of Scars on Broadway
In 2003, musicians including guitarist Daron Malakian, drummer Zach Hill, rhythm guitarist Greg Kelso, along with vocals from Casey Kaos, recorded a track, while the artist's signature was the name Scars on Broadway.
Later, a few years later, the creator of the group denied the involvement of the song in the current group, since the project under which the track was created had long ceased to exist.
In an interview in the winter of 2005, Daron Malakyan said that he had a significant amount of material for recording solo songs and he was ready to release them at any moment. The musician wanted to realize his ideas, as the leader of the main group Serj Tankian did. At the same time, Malakyan wanted to gain experience through a solo career, but at the same time supporting the existence of the System of a Down group and refuting rumors about its collapse.
Scars on Broadway
In 2006, the System of a Down group nevertheless decided to temporarily suspend their musical activities, and Daron Malakyan decided to make an effort to create a solo project. SOAD bassist Shavo Odadjian was originally in the band, but he later dropped out and was replaced by drummer John Dolmayan.
On their official website, the band posted a timer that counted down until March 28, 2008. It was on this day that the band released the song The Say, which, unfortunately, is not available for download now. Interestingly, there was a quote from the song above the timer all the time, and only a few attentive listeners immediately guessed what it was about.
Already on April 11, 2008, the first concert of the group took place in one of the popular clubs. Then the musicians repeatedly took part in large-scale rock festivals and quickly won the love of the public. The big names of the musicians also helped - many fans began to listen to the songs of the new project because of their love for the System of a Down band.
Less than a month later, the band's musicians announced that their debut album with the simple title Scars on Broadway would be released very soon. Since that time, the band's songs from the upcoming debut album began to appear on the network on various music platforms.
The audience accepted creativity positively, even the most severe critics highly appreciated the quality of the material performed by the musical project.
Suddenly, the group fell silent. They decided to take a break, stopped their concert activity and did not work on a studio recording, did not advertise it. But after 17 months, they burst into the charts with a loud noise, played a concert on a large music venue together with the bassist of the System of a Down band Shavo Odadjian.
The band's musical style
Initially, Malakyan himself spoke in all interviews that the group plays exclusively ordinary rock without any stylistic admixtures and experiments.
But attentive listeners immediately noticed the similarity of music with the work of SOAD, which, nevertheless, considered themselves to be metal. Of course, Malakyan's group represents a lighter version of such music, but there are similarities.
Later, when talking about the musical direction of the future debut album in an interview, the creator of the group said that the music would contain many unusual combinations of traditional Armenian tunes, thrash and doom metal and other musical styles. As a result, the listener received an amazing product, which was distinguished by its originality and sincerity in choosing a direction.
Over the course of many months, in various interviews, the band's frontman has repeatedly admitted that his music is influenced by classic rock, namely such performers as David Bowie, Neil Young and others.
He also believes that his style is calm and measured, unlike most metal movements, his work is not suitable for slam in the hall, such music should be listened to heartfeltly. Most of his fans support him in this.
Scars on Broadway today
The composition of the musicians over the years of the project's existence has changed - the participants left, took breaks. The group ceased to exist, but later gathered again. All these years, Malakyan remained the unchanging frontman of the band, and, perhaps, thanks to his perseverance, the band lives on today.
Recently, Daron Malakyan has practically replaced all the musicians - he plays all the instruments, which allows him to make studio recordings.
Unfortunately, such a single project is not suitable for concert activity, so the musician often collaborates with colleagues from SOAD. In 2018, the project released the album Dictator, which was a real surprise after an eight-year break.
