Soil, often typeset as SOiL, is a four piece rock band from Chicago, Illinois, United States, founded by Shaun Glass, Tom Schofield, Tim King, and Adam Zadel. In 1997 vocalist Ryan Mccombs joined the band. The group enjoyed success in the early 2000s. McCombs (currently of Drowning Pool) later left in 2004 after the band departed from their label (J Records), to be with his family, and Shaun in 2007, focusing on his new band, Dirge. Mccombs was replaced with vocalist AJ Cavalier, also of Diesel Machine.
Soil was originally formed in 1997 by members of death metal acts Broken Hope and Oppressor as a side project to their other band. Soil's first three releases, Soil (EP), El Chupacabra (EP) and their debut album Throttle Junkies, failed to break the band into the mainstream. It was around this time that all the members of Soil left their other bands to focus on Soil as their main project.
Soil's big break came when Pat Lynch of Orlando rock radio station WJRR, played the demo of "Halo" in heavy rotation. A major label bidding war erupted, the band chose J Records (a division of RCA Records). Music industry legend Clive Davis, responsible for signing such acts as Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen, signed the band and stated that "you're gonna be my only rock band for now. You're going to be a priority, and I want to break this band".
