Article by Danny Coleman

“It’s Friday the thirteenth, too, so it should be a crazy night,” says former Drowning Pool lead vocalist who’s back as frontman of the metal band SOil about their December 13 show at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ.

Currently touring with fellow rockers All That Remains and Motionless in White, SOil are filling in some nonscheduled evenings by headlining shows of their own. “Dingbatz is one of those shows,” said bassist Tim King. “We love that club, we know the owner personally, and even though it’s a smaller venue, the club rocks. We really enjoy the atmosphere and since we have an off night in the schedule, we decided to be the headliner.”

Touring in support of their latest release, Whole, the band is really enjoying themselves on this tour, as the original line-up is back in tact. “This is our first CD with Ryan (McCombs) since 2004. It’s good to get back to our roots, to hear Ryan’s aggressive vocals. We also used Will Hunt (Black Label Society, Evanescence) on drums. He provided an aggressive sound and style. This disc has a Scar-esque feel (a reference to their earlier album Scars), to find that all of these years later, having it come together; we’re very happy about it,” said King.

The departure of McCombs after their third CD, Redefine, says King, was the result of an exhaustive touring schedule. “We were touring nonstop in support of the disc, I mean, we were full out, pedal-to-the-metal going hard. We were really doing well, and Ryan had a family at the time. He was really missing them, and tensions began to get high. He needed to step away. We understood, it wasn’t a bad split, but we needed to keep going. We hired a new singer, whom we recorded two discs with. During this time, Ryan was ready to get back into it, and the opportunity came up for him with Drowning Pool, so he joined them.”

Reuniting in 2011 for a special occasion was all the impetus the band needed to bring McCombs back into the fold. As McCombs and King tell it, it just “felt right.” “We got back together for the 2011 anniversary show,” said McCombs. “It was our first show together in years, we had one rehearsal, we used Staind drummer Jon Wysocki, and we had so much fun.”

“After the show we started talking,” added King, “we talked about old times, (how) playing all together again onstage feels right, it wasSOIL an unstoppable “I guess I had the seven-year itch,” said McCombs. “Seven years with SOil and seven years with Drowning Pool, I was married for seven years. We came back from that reunion show, and about a month or so later, I parted ways with Drowning Pool, and now I’m back with SOil.”

Finishing up the current leg of this US tour before the Christmas holiday, the band has the NJ show, followed by one in Syracuse, NY, and another in Clifton Park, NY. Soon after, they’ll be gearing up for the next stage: the UK and Australia. “It is awesome,” says King. “We’ll be touring with Skindred, playing big rooms. Those guys are a great band. Going to Australia is going to be amazing. I’ve always dreamed of doing it, so when the offer came in, of course, we said yes!” McCombs echoed King’s sentiments as well, stating, “touring with Skindred…we met them years ago when we were kind of going head to head with another band. They’ve always had our back, we always support one another. Going to Australia…I haven’t been there, it’s something I always really wanted to do.”

Whole can be found in Walmart and Best Buy stores, as well as on iTunes and Amazon.com, but McCombs has a tip for the faithful. “Go to our website, www.soiltheband.com, and you’ll find a list of those who have our new record in inventory. (It’ll) save you all the trouble of going and not finding a store where it’s in stock.”

Back in business and rockin’ harder than ever, it sounds as if SOil is ready to break new ground and cultivate a new group of fans while recapturing the old ones. Here’s to hoping that they can get the Whole lot!

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