The former Mars Volta drummer is joining forces with vocalist Zach De La Rocha to form the power duo One Day As a Lion. The pair’s self-titled debut EP will drop on July 21, and if it lives up to the following description, we’re buying two copies:

It’s a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask.

The name is taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights.

It reads: “It’s better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.” This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound.

Jon Theodore, oh how we’ve missed you.