Scars on Broadway (also referred to as SCARS or abbreviated as SOB) is a new project of System of a Down's guitarist Daron Malakian, John Dolmayan and other musicians.

 History

in 2003, Daron along with 'Casey Chaos', 'Greg Kelso' and 'Zach Hill' started rehearsing and recorded some demos, the project had the title "Scars on Broadway" However, in 2007, an official letter was announced on the official Scars on Broadway's website that these demo tracks recorded back in 2003 are not in any way affiliated to Scars on Broadway as it exists today and that the music is from a disbanded project from 4 years ago.

 The origin of Scars on Broadway's name

Here's Daron explanation of the name:

"That's interesting. It has nothing to do with Broadway. There are these light posts on Broadway Street in Glendale, and I've always thought they were strange. As a teenager, I went to Glendale High, and there are these light posts that have Swastikas scarred on the bottom of them. It's not graffiti. It's actually in the design of the light posts. They're scarred in there. The name comes from that.
"Scars on Broadway" are the swastikas on the light post. It just baffles me that they keep them. They're one of the oldest things that remain here in Glendale. I'm not sure that they're the Nazi Swastikas, because they might've been here before that, but I've always found them intriguing. It's just an image that's very interesting to me, and it's dark. I can take that name, and it means something else to me.
People sometimes say, "All the world's a stage." Well Scars On Broadway can also mean "All the world's a stage, and all we are is a scar on that stage." It can take on a couple different meanings. The idea of the name came from that light post, but then when I actually sat down and thought about the name, the meaning of the name meant something absolutely different to me, and it had nothing to do with that light post anymore [Laughs]."

 About Scars on Broadway's Album

"It will probably be something electronic mixed in with traditional Armenian and thrash, death, black, and doom metal influences. When, or even if, the music comes out, it will still be structured, just like System of a Down's music is.". Said Daron Malakian

The electronic effect idea was demonstrated in all System of a Down 2005 concerts when Malakian, instead of merely singing the chorus to the songs "Sugar" or "War?", as well as "Old School Hollywood" from Mezmerize, distorted his voice electronically with a Vocoder.

In a recent interview, Daron said that the sound will be influenced by classic rock such as David Bowie, Brian Eno, Neil Young, and Roxy Music. Malakian has shifted his songwriting away from SOAD's frazzled metal to more song-based work, inspired by Neil Young and David Bowie. "I don't feel we're the mosh-pit band," says Malakian. "That's just where I'm comfortable as a writer right now."

Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan have been writing and rehearsing new material and plan to begin writing their debut album. It was reported that Scars on Broadway began recording on September 2007.

The album is confirmed to be produced by Malakian and Rick Rubin. According to the Scars on Broadway Website, as of December 6th, 2007, the drum tracks for the album had been finished and the band is moving into the next stage of recording.

On January 22, 2008 Scars on Broadway were announced to be performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 26, 2008 in a surprising announcement for the fans who did expect a release before live performance

In another interview, Daron did reveal 3 song titles, "Universe," "World Gone Wrong" and "3005." Daron has also said that fans should expect another Scars album before another System album comes out.

On March 14, 2008, Scars launched an advertising contest challenging fans to post the Scars on Broadway countdown banner on the best websites they can find and submit screenshots. The prize is a cymbal signed by John and Daron.

Album Track-list:

               1. Serious
               2. Funny
               3. Exploding / Reloading
               4. Stoner Hate
               5. Insane
               6. World Long Gone
               7. Kill Each Other / Live Forever
               8. Babylon
               9. Chemicals
               10 Enemy
               11. Universe
               12. 3005
               13. Cute Machines
               14. Whoring Streets
               15. They Say
               16. Hungary Ghosts [Japanese bounce track]
 

    iTunes Edition
               16. Scars on Broadway" (Instrumental)
               17. They Say" (Music Video / for Pre-Orders Only)
            

    Best Buy Bonus DVD / UK Edition
                   1. The Making of 'They Say' (video)
                   2. They Say (Music Video))

  They Say

 'They Say' was the first single released digitally on March the 28th 2008, the song was released on Scars on Broadway's official website after 14 days of putting a counting down on the website. Song can be heard/downloaded HERE, Lyrics has been posted HERE.

 First Show ever

After releasing 'They Say' the band did a surprise secret live show in April 11, 2008 at the Whisky A GO GO in Hollywood, the show was announced just few days before its date.

The performance was half an hour, Scars performed around 10 songs including 'They Say'. [Read detailed review with photos & videos about the show].

 Videos

 'They Say', Scars's first single, was premiered on Yahoo's music website on June 27th, 2008, the video was directed by Paul Minor, later a video was out of the making of They Say video - the video is downloadable from HERE.

 'Chemicals',  was premiered only online at myspace on July 8th, 2008, a video teaser was put on Scars' official youtube channel that was renamed later as an 'Album teaser' instead of Chemicals teaser.

 'World Long Gone' was released as second single, the video, which was directed by Joel Schumacher, involved real fans along with Jessica Miller (Daron's girlfriend) - check this article for full details and photos about the shooting of the video.

Low Sales

Scars on Broadway's Album sold under 24.000 copies in First-Week U.S. Sales which considered to be not the best sales comparing to Serj Tankian's Album 'Elect The Dead' which sold more than 66.000 copies in its first week. Other Sources did report that the total sales of Scars' album didn't exceed 58.000 copies after 3 months of the release while Serj's album did bypass 300.000 sold copies.

Some sources did suggst that this low sales might be one of the reasons why Daron went on cancelling the tour and putting the band state on hold.

Scars on Broadway Tour Cancellation & 'on hold' state

in October 06 2008, Daron surprisingly sent a message though Scars' myspace announcing cancellation of all live activities of the band due to personal issues; without clarifying exactly the nature of the issues he's facing, rumors was calming that the band broke up already especially with involving the other members in new side projects and no official confirmation that they will be back.

Daron sent another message in the next day, October 07; stating that he understands the fans anger and frustration and asking the fans to understand.

Other members of Scars sent similar messages as well through their myspace pages like Franky Perez and Dominic Cifarelli.  check more details in This Article.

The band at the moment is on hold, no official news or updates on the band state have been said or when they will be back or if the band is over.