Daron Malakian

About

Daron Malakian (Armenian: Տարոն Մալաքյան; Western Armenian: Տարօն Մալաքեան; born July 18, 1975) is an Armenian-American musician. He is the guitarist, songwriter, and second vocalist of the metal band System of a Down, and the lead vocalist, lead guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter of Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway.
Malakian was ranked 47th in Loudwire’s list of “Top 50 Hard Rock + Metal Guitarists of All Time” and number 11 in MusicRadar’s poll “The 20 Greatest Metal Guitarists Ever”. He placed 30th in Guitar World’s list of “The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time”.

Daron Malakian was born on July 18, 1975, in Hollywood, California, the only child to Armenian parents Vartan and Zepur Malakian (née Markarian). His father, Vartan, is a painter, dancer, and choreographer from Mosul, Iraq, and his mother is a sculptor who instructed college-level sculpting earlier in her career. At an early age, Malakian got into heavy metal music; his distant cousin played him a Kiss record when he was age 4. Malakian started listening to Van Halen, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead and Ozzy Osbourne. He always…