Pains and frustrations for the big and small.

Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway self-released their third album Addicted To The Violence on July 18^th, 2025. The album is a frenzied, pained mix of personal and political statements delivered with a healthy spoonful of rock to both salve the burn and add fuel to the flame.

This is the project’s first new record since 2018. Malakian, also a founding member and songwriter in System of A Down, said in a press release “I’m just as proud of Scars as I am of SOAD. This is another musical outlet for me. I think it’s some of the best stuff I have to offer. I’m blessed that I can still do this and write songs every day.” Malakian is the lead creative mind in charge of Scars on Broadway, handling the vocals and multiple instruments along with the songwriting. The press release describes Addicted To The Violence as “an album that refuses to shy away from uncomfortable truths.”

Rapid oscillations between frantic metal riffs and punk rock melodies define the instrumental profile of the album. Speed and energy are highly variable even within individual tracks; some moments punch closer to alt-rock, some to nu-metal and some hit like pure punk rock. Daron Malakian’s vocal performance is angry and thrashing but not incoherent; the lyrics are aggressive and unapologetic in heavier moments, but level off to mellower fronts when necessary.

Addicted To The Violence opens with a frenetic bombardment of sound and shouts in “Killing Spree,” before moving into an even heavier and angrier headspace with the over-the-top crass lyrics of “Satan Hussein” over the heaviest metal performance in the album. “Done Me Wrong” scales back to a faster but more melodic sound, with the lyrics taking a turn to the more personable side.

Fourth track “The Shame Game” shifts the meter from metal to rock, with a more nuanced emotional profile along with a lower and slower electric guitar, keeping pace before the last third of the song crescendos into high energy. Following is “Destroy the Power,” a punk-forward number that merges some of the heavier elements of the opening tracks with the emotion and personality of the songs that precede it.

The second half of the album starts with “Your Lives Burn,” a hardcore-punk style song whose politically-charged lyrics do away with metaphor entirely. “Imposter” shifts the register back to fast and loud metal for a track without compromising the melodic aspects of the album. The album’s oddball track is “You Destroy You,” a softer and more traditionally alt-rock palate cleanser with hardly a metal riff in earshot.

Ninth track “Watch That Girl” is another more traditionally and personally styled alt-rock song, though, the metal influence comes back with a vengeance. Closer “Addicted To The Violence” is the longest track on the album and has something for everyone. There’s dramatic melodies, fast riffs, slower moments and above all, a tone that arrives at the natural endpoint once the album’s anger and bitterness have run their course: resignation.

Addicted To The Violence is a cry of pain in reaction to all the big and small cruelties of the world as seen through the eyes of Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway; that cry of pain is transformed to a statement, and that statement has thrashing guitars to turn it to art.