There's been a lot of buzz ahead of Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway's forthcoming album Dictator, which drops later this month on July 20. After dropping the title-track and "Lives" earlier this year, the musician is giving another taste of what's in store, in the form of the powerful new single, "Guns Are Loaded."
The song has actually been kicking around his discography for a while, having appeared in live sets back in 2012. The studio version of the song showcases a significant amount of atmospheric build-up, before launching into a heavier guitar section. Malakian's voice is on point — hitting some intense heights previously unheard from him.
In an interview with Revolver, Malakian explains that he's been sitting on the new Scars on Broadway album for six years, thinking that System of a Down could make a record and that he might want to use the songs for that. "There was always this talk of maybe we'll do something, maybe we won't do something," he says. "So I was like, 'Maybe I should save these songs.' That's the biggest reason why I took so long to release these songs." And he adds, "This album is closer to a System of a Down album than the first Scars album was. I just wanted to make something that was heavier."
Malakian has also been speaking about being upset at the lack of movement in a new System album, revealing Serj Tankian "didn't even want to make Mezmerize and Hypnotize. We really begged him to make those records. At that time, he felt like he was out." Tankian responded to the comments on Facebook, where he wrote that he was "responsible for the hiatus Soad took in 2006," pointing to his desire to create solo work and avoid "artistic redundancy," as well as the lack of equal "creative input and financial revenue splits" within the band.
