It’s finally time. After semi-recently celebrating their past with a vinyl repressing of their debut LP, Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway — the side project of System of a Down guitarist-vocalist Daron Malakian — have just announced their first album in seven years: Addicted to the Violence.
The album was teased earlier this week through a creepily antagonistic, axe-wielding teaser vid, which touted the launching of today’s (June 6th) first single, “Killing Spree.”
A new video for the song was just premiered by Rolling Stone. In it, you’ll hear Malakian manically dredging up a mock tiger’s roar while thrash-chugging his way through the tune. Lyrically, he’s weighing in on the violence around him, which only seems to be compounding (“Insanity/Controlling me/Society/The kids are on a killing spree”). Visually, Scars performance footage is merged with a killer’s POV.
“It’s a taboo topic people might be afraid to talk about,” Malakian said in a statement. “Kids have rebelled forever. Mental disorders have always been there too. In the last 15 years, we’ve seen a generation that will walk into school and kill other students. I’m not glamorizing or advocating it. I’m just saying, ‘The kids are on a fucking killing spree.’”
He adds: “It’s what I see in front of me. I’m not just talking about killings either. You’ll see a lady who’s getting beaten up on the subway and people around her aren’t even helping; they’re fucking recording on their iPhones. We had automatic weapons 50 years ago, and nobody was doing this. I blame the mindset. We now have a generation that is so detached and desensitized. They’re totally unemotional and unempathetic. There’s no respect for life.”
Addicted to the Violence, the follow-up to 2018’s Dictator, is due out July 18th through Malakian’s own Scarred for Life Records, and you can pre-order it now in an exclusive, limited-edition vinyl colorway at Revolver’s shop, along with standard black vinyl and CDs.
The 10-song album was produced by Malakian and features musicians Orbel Babayan (keyboard, guitar, bass), Roman Lomtadze (drums) and Matthew “Narducci” Silberman (saxophone). Check out the cover art and tracklisting below.
As previously reported, Malakian will also be busy this fall playing a trio of two-night stands across North America with System of a Down. Those shows feature opening sets from Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones, Korn and more. The details can be found here.
Addicted to the Violence tracklisting:
Killing Spree
Satan Hussein
Done Me Wrong
The Shame Game
Destroy the Power
Your Lives Burn
Imposter
You Destroy You
Watch That Girl
Addicted to the Violence