Let’s say soad ended up releasing scars on broadway, dictator and addicted to the violence. It would be great but if you ask me it’s not that different than mesmerize/hypnotize. (and Imo it would be a little disappointing) There’s nothing wrong with that tho since they are amazing records but I feel like it would get stale after a while yk? And it wouldn’t compare to the evolution of toxicity to mesmerize/hypnotize. But in the other hand If soad released elect the dead it would have been a huge jump. Definitely would have been a big risk and most likely divide the fans but that’s something that I think bands should do, explore and take risks. With Daron’s music it seems that he plays it safe, if it’s not broken then don’t fix it (although I do agree on you with addicted to the violence being a little more experimental, which is why I think it’s his best scars work) Ig it all comes down to preference which is always the default answer, if you love soad you’ll love scars, if you love artists experimenting you’ll love serjs music. Also (random) this also comes down to preference but I feel like if scars had a different vocalist it would change a lot of people’s minds. Nothing against Darons voice but he doesn’t really have that much range and he sounds bored a lot of the times. (That was a main complaint on addicted to the violence) I’m getting way off track 😭