SOIL bassist Tim King has explained his decision to publicly slam the group's former singer, Ryan McCombs, for joining DROWNING POOL after McCombs allegedly deemed the songs on the first DROWNING POOL album "average."

As previously reported, DROWNING POOL are believed to be have recruited McCombs to replace their last vocalist, Jason "Gong" Jones, who left the band in early June.

The revamped DROWNING POOL will be making a one-off appearance at this year's Ozzfest on August 25 at the Smirnoff Music Center in Dallas, Texas. The band will perform on the main stage in front of their hometown crowd in what promises to be the group's debut live appearance with McCombs, who has yet to be officially announced as the band's new lead singer.

In a posting on SOIL's official forum, King elaborated further on his criticism of McCombs for hooking up with DROWNING POOL after the departure of Jones:

"Listen guys, you ALL know how much I love and respect our fans. I say it all the time and show it all the time. I don't want anyone to feel like they have to choose sides, and you shouldn't, if you dont want to. You loved SOIL for the albums we previously did, and that is why you are here in the first place. I wouldn't take back anything we did on those albums. I am damn proud of them and all we did on them.

"The reason for my [previous] post was because I couldn't hold it in any longer. I have been for years and was willing to never say a word. But [Ryan] joining the band and with the events and real truth of what happened, I couldn't stand by and let the charade go on any further. I loved [late DROWNING POOL frontman] Dave [Williams] as a metal brother and a musician and we got pretty close over the year I knew him. The 'Sinner' record is still one of my favorites to this day as well as the new album ['Desensitized']. I think Jason Gong has an amazing voice as well. But when I hear a certain ex-singer of ours saying how close he was to Dave when he never even knew him properly or liked his album and THEN join that band when he said those shoes were too big to fill and never would do that is just plain wrong, in my opinion. To hear people say how great of a choice Ryan is to join DROWNING POOL because he was so close to Dave made me have to speak my mind because I saw first-hand the events that transpired and proved otherwise. That is the point of my post to set the record straight and voice my opinion on how hypocritical I think it is for him to join DROWNING POOL due to those facts. I would say those same comments about anyone who did that exact same thing.

"I take full responsibility for my words and will not take them back. I meant every single one of them. I feel betrayed by someone I considered a brother at one time and by a band I considered to once be brothers as well. Me and my band got lied to by all of them to our faces and never got the common courtesy of return phone calls. All of you on here speak your opinions. Why shouldn't I be able to to? This is a forum for my band after all, right?

"You guys asked the questions, I gave the answers… good or bad.

"This is all I have to say on the subject and i stand behind my words. Time to finish the new SOIL album and let the music do the talking."

Responding to Tim King's initial post, DROWNING POOL bassist Stevie Benton stated in a posting on DROWNING POOL's official forum, "Comedy. [Tim King] makes me laugh."