Album reviews: Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway, Popcaan, Skeletonwitch and Punch Brothers

System of a Down’s Daron Malakian releases his long-awaited second solo album, while Jamaican singer Popcaan follows up on his 2014 debut with ‘Forever’

Malakian recorded his album in 2012 but there’s an immediate relevance to its songs (Greg Watermann)

Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway – Dictator

★★★★☆

System of a Down’s guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Daron Malakian has been sitting on this one for a while.

Dictator, the latest release from his solo project Daron Malakian and Scars On Broadway, lands a week shy of their eponymous debut record and will, hopefully, enjoy more attention from SOAD fans than its predecessor.

With a dynamism and ferocity like few other releases so far this year, Dictator shines a light on Malakian’s musical prowess: he performs all of the instruments on the record in addition to vocal duties, creating a shifting, immersive mood that delves into everything from straight-up thrash to early Eighties metal and signature, Middle Eastern-influenced guitar.

While the album was recorded six years ago, there’s an immediate relevance on tracks such as the fearsome “We Won’t Obey” (“your politics will never corrupt me,” Malakian roars) and “Talkin Shit”.

On the first single, “Lives”, Malakian encourages Armenians to be proud of their culture and heritage, regardless of the tyranny that has oppressed them in the past. Surprises come in the shape of a slow-sprawling instrumental cover of “Gie Mou” by Stamatis Kokotas, a singer referred to fondly as “the Greek Elvis”.

On the intro of “Guns Are Loaded” there’s a techno buzz beneath the delicate picks on the guitar that hums menacingly like a swarm of insects. “Sickening Wars”, one of the heaviest tracks on the album, is a powerhouse featuring Malakian alternating between monstrous guitar riffs and dramatic, thrashing drum beats.

Dictator is everything fans might expect from Malakian and more; a complex, thoughtful and invigorating album that nods to his own personal history and simultaneously links to the wider, tumultuous landscape of America. (Roisin O’Connor)

Popcaan – Forever

★★★☆☆

Popcaan’s debut album mixed pop bangers with experimental sounds, low-key moments with huge choruses; 13 dancehall tracks that scored rave reviews and won him guest spots on tracks from Gorillaz and Jamie XX.

Four years later, the Jamaican singer returns with another highly anticipated solo release, hoping to capitalise on those famed guest spots. The results are, unfortunately, very mixed. At 17 tracks long, Forever has the components of a solid album but becomes overstuffed, needing cutting down and reshaping to fulfil Popcaan’s previously seen potential.

The first few tracks are an unrelenting rush of mass appeal dancehall tracks, featuring heavy autotune and smooth drum beats. Each one becomes increasingly difficult to differentiate from the other, following a very similar structure with no particular standout choruses. They are perfectly pleasant songs, but completely skippable (apart from “Body Is So Good”, with its notably more interesting production and a strong singalong chorus, and instantly likeable “Naked”).

The real break comes 10 tracks in with “Lef My Gun”, its slinky minimal production and foreboding lyrics catching your attention. Forever picks up from here. Although some of the songs follow that same pop structure seen on the first half, by contrasting them with more experimental sounds (that are not hoping to top the charts), they have much more impact. “Dun Rich” emphasises this, featuring Davido as a great guest whose vocal style bounces perfectly off Popcaan’s.

By the time “Firm and Strong” – the penultimate song – comes around, there’s a feeling that this could have been a great record. As the longest track at almost five minutes (the rest are all well under four) Popcaan has time to introduce a choral singers and actually play with sounds. And the last track, “A Whu Suh,” even has a slow, solo piano at the end, threatening to do something really different. (Jack Shepherd)

Skeletonwitch – Devouring Radiant Light

★★★★☆

Having not released a record in five years, the longest such stint in their 15-year career, the sixth album from Ohio metallers Skeletonwitch arrives on a wave of anticipation. Thankfully, and despite the propensity of some tracks to hang around longer than they might need to, it lives largely up to expectations.

With Skeletonwitch falling under the umbrella term of black metal, by and large, it’s unsurprising that Devouring Radiant Light should be as heavy and as blisteringly uncompromising a record as it is. That said, while certainly an exercise in catharsis, it’s also a nuanced release, perfectly exhibiting the band’s understanding of black metal’s more refined facets.

Much like a microcosm of the album it kicks off with opening number “Fen of Shadows”: an eight-minute epic that introduces listeners to the multitude of elements that recur over the album’s run time. From the steadily building, uplifting intro, the calamitous drums, caustic vocal delivery or constantly shifting time signatures, it’s the perfect storm of black metal tropes, giving listeners their first taste of this album, sure, but also of what the band are referring to as “Skeletonwitch 2.0”.

Tracks such as the blistering “Temple of the Sun” take no prisoners, taking little time before exploding into the kind of full-frontal assault we’ve come to expect from the heavier side of metal. Elsewhere “The Luminous Sky” takes a more frenetic approach though feels no less uncompromising, while “The Sacred Soil” closes out a record that not only shows exactly where Skeletonwitch are in 2018, but also where contemporary metal is at as well. (Dave Beech)

Punch Brothers – All Ashore

★★★★☆

All Ashore, the fifth album from Brooklyn’s Punch Brothers, is a difficult one to pin down. One part forward-thinking and avant-garde, the other steeped in the traditional sounds of their home country, it’s a record both open and expansive, while feeling understated and harbouring a quiet intelligence.

The album opens with the gently building title track, which introduces listeners to the record’s fragile aesthetic perfectly. And while established fans of the band will find it business as usual for the five-piece, the uninitiated will find an album of rich instrumentation and understated beauty that reveals deeper nuances on each and every listen.

Songs such as “Three Dots and a Dash” or “Jungle Bird”, for instance, skid and skitter with wild abandon, as guitars, banjos and violins play off each other perfectly. Elsewhere, the likes of “Look At This Mess” exhibit a slightly more sombre, less giddy side to Punch Brothers’ songcraft, providing some brief respite from those more excitable tracks.

For the most part, All Ashore feels like a breath of fresh Appalachian air. Both forward-thinking and imbued with an appreciation of the traditional sounds of America, it might not harbour a universal sense of appeal, but that makes it all the more beguiling for those who that fall for it. (Dave Beech)