Chicago heavy rockers SOIL will enter the studio later this month with longtime producer Ulrich Wild to begin recording their sixth album for a tentative summer release. The band recently worked on 13 songs in pre-production with engineer Don Byczynski at BOTA Studio in Lake In The Hills, Illinois.

Ulrich previously produced SOIL's 2006 album "True Self" and co-produced the band's last effort, 2009's "Picture Perfect".

SOIL's forthcoming CD will mark the band's first release with original vocalist Ryan McCombs since 2004's "Re.De.Fine".

"We are very eager and excited to be back in the studio again," states SOIL bassist Tim King. "This new album has a very classic SOIL feel to it".

The as-yet-untitled CD will be recorded and released completely independently.

"We will be calling all the shots on this one" says King. "Every decision will be made by myself, Adam [Zadel, guitar], and Ryan."

Distribution in North America will be handled through Sony RED/MRI via Pavement Entertainment, in which SOIL has an interest. Europe/rest of world will go through SOIL's long time partner AFM Records. Pavement Entertainment president Mark Nawara, welcomes the experience. "I am happy to be a part of the new SOIL album," he says. "We have structured an innovative and unique business venture that lets the band stay 100 percent independent while giving them access to the many resources they require to release an album successfully."

In a recent interview with Metal Forces, McCombs stated about the band's next CD: "This is the first time Adam, Tim and I have been writing together since 'Re.De.Fine', so you have the key component of what made those records. I was always the lyric writer of those albums, and if I stumbled somewhere, Adam was always there to give me a little boost, and give me a little direction here and there. You've got us back together as far as the lyrics that I write go. You've got Adam too; he was 98.9% of the music on those records, and if he ever had any struggle with whatever — if he ever had any questions — I was always there to help with the arrangement of the songs. We really got the key components of those albums back together again, and I feel like the material that we're coming up with is that perfect anchor to where you had 'Scars' and 'Re.De.Fine'. I think this album is the next stage, the next album in line for SOIL."

SOIL recently launched an interactive pre-sale campaign on Kickstarter to enable fans to participate in the release of the band's forthcoming album. Fans will receive exclusive shirts, a chance to have dinner with the band, autographed merchandise, attend studio sessions, an exclusive new MP3 download of the first studio song with McCombs since 2004's "Redefine" album and more. They also will be the first to receive the new album when it's released.