HOLLYWOOD — Serj Tankian is a thoughtful, erudite man — especially for a wild-man rock singer — but sometimes he's overwhelmed by an impulse. His decision to quit studying for law school and become a musician came so suddenly that he literally hit the brakes on his Jeep Wrangler one night in the early 1990s.

And in 2005, he was accepting a European MTV Award with his band, System of a Down, when something came over him.

"In my mind, something just sprung up and went, 'You have to say this,' " Tankian says. "And I'm like, 'Thank you very much, but what I really want to say is civilization is over.'

"I said, 'Let's find a way to work through this peacefully with each other all together with love and understanding.' And I'm going to my seat and I go, 'What ... did I just say?' It was what was percolating out of me. And since then I've been thinking about that and what it means."

Tankian's engagement with the thesis that greed, nationalism and indifference to the environment have taken civilization past the point of no return sets the tone for much of his new solo album, "Elect the Dead." Released last month, the collection is the first work from a System member since the acclaimed Los Angeles quartet formalized an "indefinite hiatus" earlier this year.

"Nature-based beings will survive apocalyptic days of now ... nature will survive us human dogs after all," he sings in the song "Honking Antelope," his eccentric, twangy warble and jumpy cadences as distinctive in his work as they were in System of a Down.

On stage and on record, Tankian, 40, is a flamboyant figure with a fierce glare and a unique voice that's helped make System of a Down a rock institution. And away from music, he's a fervent social crusader with a special interest in the Armenian genocide. He and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello founded the nonprofit organization Axis of Justice to unite musicians, fans and political organizations behind activist causes.

But entering his hillside home is more like stepping into a mountain monastery than the lair of a rabble-rousing rocker.

Tankian's homes haven't always been so tranquil. He was born in Beirut and came to the U.S. with his family at age 7, just as civil war in Lebanon was heating up. He grew up in the Los Angeles area and joined a relative's jewelry business after graduating from California State University, Northridge.

He started a software company with products geared to that trade, and after selling it, he took classes to prepare for law school. But he had started tinkering with music in college, and then came that moment of revelation.

"The realization came to me: Do I want to be a lawyer? ... Hell no, I want to do music. And that was it."

Tankian teamed with guitarist Daron Malakian in a band called Soil, and after it broke up, the two formed System of a Down. They had immediate support in the Armenian community, but soon their experimental hard rock, most of it recorded with producer Rick Rubin, caught on big. They've released five albums since 1998, and none has sold fewer than 1 million copies in the U.S.