Alt-metal quartet Taproot [ tickets ] logs more miles this summer as it hits the tour trail for another round of dates that support its sophomore effort, "Welcome."

The Michigan-based group gets things underway in late June with a series of radio-festival performances, followed by a headlining club tour.

Released last October, "Welcome" is the follow up to Taproot's 2000 debut, "Gift." The new set features 12 tracks that the group recorded in Los Angeles with producer Toby Wright (Alice in Chains, Korn); Andy Wallace (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) mixed the finished product.

According to frontman Stephen Richards, the group clocked many more hours while making "Welcome" than it did while creating "Gift."

"'Gift' took us seven weeks, from pre-production to completed recording," Richards said in a statement. "We took ten times as long to make 'Welcome' and I think the hard works shows."

Contributing to the longer timetable was Wright, who felt that the band's initial work on the new album was too methodical.

"Toby saw how much fun we had goofing around the studio," Richards said, "so he wanted us to relax and allow more of our true selves into the songs. At first our jaws hit the floor, because we thought we were ready to go, but it really sparked us to step outside ourselves and write music that was more honest and more fun to play.

"When we came back and played the new songs to Toby, he was floored. 'I knew you had it in you,' he told us. The record would not be the same if he hadn't pushed us the way he did."