Serj Tankian has announced a memoir called Down With The System, which will be released next May. “Boom! – I wrote a new book,” Tankian said in a social media post. “I had a blast working on this accidentally hatched philosophical memoir as it’s given me the unique opportunity to deep dive into my family history, my own motivations from a young age and lessons I didn’t know I had learned.”

The System Of A Down leader had previously released two books of poetry, 2001’s Cool Gardens and 2011’s Glaring Through Oblivion.

In the book, Tankian writes that System Of A Down was:

… unlikely a chart-topper as had ever existed in modern music history: a band of Armenian-Americans playing a practically unclassifiable clash of wildly aggressive metal riffs, unconventional tempo-twisting rhythms, and Armenian folk melodies, with me alternately growling, screaming, and crooning lyrics that could pivot from avant-garde silliness to raging socio-political rants in the space of a single line … It’s not easy listening.

Here’s the book’s official description:

With nearly 40 million record sales, three albums topping the Billboard charts, a Grammy win and a legion of fans, System Of A Down are one of the biggest metal bands on the planet. At their core has always been Serj Tankian, whose journey from the streets of Beirut to rock superstardom is as remarkable and unlikely as you’ll get.

By dint of luck, circumstance, struggle, and more than a little talent, Serj has had the chance to live an extraordinary life. In Down With the System, he retraces this remarkable and unlikely journey, and explores what it’s taught him – about music, about art, about activism, and about himself. From teaming up with Tom Morello to push social justice causes on unsuspecting metalheads, arguing with LAPD officers over the best way to quell his rioting fans, and traveling with Anthony Bourdain through Armenia one meal at a time, Down With the System is an immigrant’s tale, an activist’s awakening, and rock memoir unlike any other.

Down With The System will be released on May 14. Pre-order it here.