SERJ TANKIAN Planning Deluxe Edition Of Solo Album

The Pulse of Radio reports: SYSTEM OF A DOWN vocalist Serj Tankian will release a deluxe edition of his upcoming debut solo album, "Elect the Dead", according to FMQB.com. The expanded package will come with four bonus tracks, a 48-page booklet and a code that accesses a site featuring exclusive content. The deluxe version of the disc will be available on October 23, the same date as the standard CD.

Tankian said that he has written hundreds of songs over the years from which he selected the tunes for "Elect the Dead". The singer told The Pulse of Radio that even while making SYSTEM albums he'd mostly work alone. "Even with SYSTEM, I always wrote the songs by myself in my own studio," he said. "I would write the songs, and have the vocals, have the whole arrangement done, then I'd take it to the band. But I'd still work the song from its inception to full form by myself. This is something I'd been doing for a very long time and that experience really, really lent itself to making 'Elect the Dead'."

Tankian has posted a video online for the song "Saving Us" (directed by acclaimed rock photographer Kevin Estrada),which appears on "Elect the Dead". This follows clips for "The Unthinking Majority" and the album's first single, "Empty Walls".

The singer will hold a series of "theatre listening parties" around the country on October 22 where all 12 videos from "Elect the Dead" will be screened. Tankian enlisted video and film directors, painters and digital artists to each create a different short film for the dozen tracks on the record.

Tankian will begin his first-ever solo tour on Friday (October 12) in Chicago.