Daron Malakian is one of those cats who writes music as though his brain were on shuffle, a riot of riffs and melodies animated by a fidgety, channel-surfing sensibility.
One minute, he could be pocketed in an LA punk groove, his vocals juiced on an off-the-rails Jello Biafra energy, the next, he’ll hit a handbrake turn and work in something from out of left field. It could be a psychedelic arrangement, or some “folky dance Armenian dance keyboards” because why not, right?
This compositional anarchy is what his audience has long expected of him, and on Addicted To The Violence, Malakian’s long-awaited third album with Scars On Broadway (out Friday, 18 July, via Scarred For Life), there will be plenty of this anarchy.
System Of A Down fans will have much to sink their teeth into. There will be some curveballs, too. Malakian has been explaining some of the thinking behind this protean style, arguing that asking him to stick to one genre or emotional register is like asking a painter to only use one set of colours.
“I never stick to only one feeling,” says Malakian. “Even in the span of one song, it might go into a different feeling from the verse to the chorus. There are so many flavors and styles.”
Malakian tracked Addicted To The Violence at home before taking it to a studio, principally to rerecord Roman Lomtadze’s drums but also the guitar and bass guitar.
It has been a long time coming. Malakian’s last album with Scars On Broadway, Dictator, was released back in 2018. Scars broke cover in October last year, releasing two EPs, War For Religion and Fucking/Shotgun, on the same day.
Malakian insists he has been writing all this time.
“I’m always writing songs, because it’s the only way I know how to live,” he says. “It’s my purpose. When I write, I try to stay honest. I don’t put myself in a box, which is why you have both heavy and mid-tempo material. It takes you through different feelings, and that’s what I’ve always done. If I was a painter, I wouldn’t tell myself, ‘I can’t use these colours.’
“So, all of the colours are available to me. All of the emotions are also available, because we go through each one of them as people. I’m expressing everything I can.”
Malakian has shared two singles from Addicted To The Violence. Killing Spree, which is about school shootings, mass murder as an everyday event, is antic and operatic SOAD-style punk, while Destroy The Power is four-to-the-floor low-end with eighth-note metal guitar and harmonised electric guitar.
But not all of the tracks are led by the guitar all of the time. Malakian says the synthesizer ties the album together, as it does on the second half of Shame Game, when it sketches out the melody.
“The middle part gets really dark,” says Malakian. “I’m actually following the keyboard lead with my guitar, which is different for me. The synth sound became like a recurring character throughout the entire album. It pops up here and there, and it brings this body of work together in a way.”
Addicted To The Violence is out on July 18, via Scarred For Life.
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