Alice in Chains, Deftones, Mastodon tour for ‘BlackDiamondSkye’ this fall

Hard rock heavyweights Alice in Chains, Deftones and Mastodon are teaming up for a fall tour of North America. The BlackDiamondSkye Tour name, appropriately, is an amalgamation of each group’s most recent studio album: “Black Gives Way to Blue” by Alice in Chains, the upcoming “Diamond Eyes” by Deftones, and “Crack the Skye” by Mastodon.

The hefty billing will be on the road together from September 16 at Chart One Pavilion in Chicago, IL, through October 16 at The Joint in Las Vegas, NV. More concerts will be announced in the near future.

As it stands now, the itinerary features 13 dates, including performances on September 24 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY, and October 4 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, CO. A couple Canadian markets are also on the books with gigs on September 18 at Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in Toronto, ON, and October 7 at General Motors Place in Vancouver, BC.

Public ticket sales begin May 15 in Vancouver and May 20 in Toronto. Box offices in the United States open a couple days later on May 22. The tour itinerary and onsale dates will be updated as more information is announced on the official BlackDiamondSkye tour Web site.

Alice in Chains released its first studio album in more than a decade, “Black Gives Way to Blue,” in September 2009 with new vocalist William DuVall taking over for the late Layne Staley. The band supported the effort with a fall 2009 tour and an early 2010 tour, both routed through national clubs and theaters.

Deftones, meanwhile, are set to release “Diamond Eyes” on May 4. The record is the first with bassist Sergio Vega, who is standing in for original bassist Chi Cheng. In November 2008, Cheng was in a car accident that left him in a coma. As a result, the band decided to indefinitely table their last album with Cheng, “Eros,” and slowly move forward with scattered international tour dates.

Finally, Mastodon is still touring behind the March 2009 release “Crack the Skye,” which received extremely positive critical reviews. The band performed the album in its entirety on a spring 2009 tour of North America. Later that summer, the rockers hit the road again on a tour with the animated death metal band Dethklok.

BlackDiamondSkye Tour itinerary:
(Dates are subject to change.)