Scars on Broadway (2008)

On this new project, System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan have bleeding ears and bleeding hearts. Never deviating too far from SOAD's candied metal approach, now, as Scars on Broadway, songwriter Malakian launches his tuneful riffs like stealth missiles and sings in a voice that sounds like a deranged circus barker's. Malakian's angry all right, mostly about environmental destruction (''Universe'') and media-induced apathy (''Chemicals''). The polemics are occasionally clumsy, but the band's gloriously over-the-top heaviosity still makes Scars on Broadway a fine addition to the SOAD canon. B+
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