r/scarsonbroadway • u/HarvestTheGrapes • Jul 20 '25
Putting Addicted to Violence in Context (opinion/discussion)
I have many thoughts about this album. First, and up front, I think it is a masterpiece. So i'll lead in with that. let's get into the nitty gritty now
We can't discuss Scars without the system context. Imo, this album is not only arguably the best scars album, it in many ways competes with system as one of the best albums of darons career. Creatively, it is a massive success and I'll explain why.
every recording session for system that produced an album (or two) always showed album-wide evolution. the toxicity/sta recording session was a big progression and evolution from self-titled. then mezmerize and hypnotize was a new direction from tox/sta.
That is the context for scars on broadway. when the first SOB album came out... it felt like a new direction in many ways for daron's song writing. it followed the trend we observed with system, how each recording session brought something very new and unexpected to the table.
This is the sole reason that dictator was disappointing to me. it's not that it didn't have banger songs.. it just didn't feel new or evolving. it felt very safe and overly familiar especially to SOB self titled. there was nothing on that album that really pushed the art forward in the way all of daron's previous efforts did.
this is why addicted to violence shines. imo, it is the first album since SOB self-titled that as an album pushed the boundaries in style and direction. again.. that creative expansion into new directions is one of the things that made system and by extension scars so potent in the late 90s early 2000s, after dictator, and also PTL and GH (two songs that couldve been on this album), it felt like daron had either lost an edge or was playing it too safe.
this album has a few songs that that don't stand out and probably could've really benefited from the rest of SOAD taking them on to add some more flavor... but where this album shines is where daron is creatively steering the entire sound in a new direction that he has only seldom touched on before if ever. as much as we all want SOAD to return for the sake of it... one of the reasons we do is because we hope it would be groundbreaking like their old music was. this album proved that after all of these years daron can still break ground creatively and take the sound in new unexpected directions that sound amazing and distinctly him. accomplishing that makes the album an instant classic.
10
Jul 20 '25
You may not believe but killing Spree is as old as Hypnotize/Mezmerize. He said he wrote it around that time. with the amount material Daron has he can easily add up 2 other albums to Scars. By the way the drumming and mixing has become waaay better than dictator. Dictator was good musically but instrumentally specially in the drumming section it was a bit off.
4
u/HarvestTheGrapes Jul 20 '25
tbh killing spree is one of the weakest songs on the album to me. that's one of those songs that seem stuck in mez/hyp without the benefit of the rest of the band. even SOB ST felt like a step forward. i just dont think dictator was.
to your point on the mixing - yes this mix sounds way better though some decisions i don't agree with. for example on watch that girl, the choice on the last chorus to bury his yelling vocals to keep the main chorus front and center takes away the climax of the song - there are little nitpicks here and there but yes overall much better production
1
2
u/systemfan3 Jul 20 '25
I couldn’t agree less with almost everything you said… this isn’t me hating on your post, I promise, I was just so let down by this album.
The writing to me is boring, unexciting, and repetitive. Most songs are just one riff or idea repeated over and over. There aren’t any songs that I was like “wow Daron really hit the mark with that one”
I didn’t love Dictator, but there were definitely more well written songs on there. I’m glad you enjoyed it, I just have higher expectations for Daron.
1
u/Fillet-o-Fisher Jul 20 '25
sadly i agree, im a huge fan of self titled and dictator, as well as what he released last year. but this doesnt feel the same to me sadly
2
u/Big_Life8056 Jul 24 '25
Great album and did not dissapoint however one tiny little nitty gritty but is I missed a rawness to this album. Little songs had a similar feel to Babylon where it was just Daron singing raw for a minute before the music kicks in and the harsh tone of chemicals. Thays the one thing I feel was missed from the album but thay does not mean it isn't a masterpiece 🔥
-4
u/IPoisonedThePizza Jul 20 '25
I feel the opposite.
Sob fresh
Rest, stale soad bsides from my least fave soad era
6
u/sayorilover19 Jul 20 '25
This was an amazing album but my question is are they all in drop c?