Alice In Chains, Deftones and Mastodon Mega Tour

Over the course of the past week, message boards across the Internet have been buzzing about the tour following a series of mysterious videos seen here: and the countdown posted on the recently launched blackdiamondskye.com site.

"Rather than launch with a traditional tour announcement, we wanted to engage the fans first," says David "Beno" Benveniste, founder of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group, who rep Alice In Chains and Deftones. "We gave them a cryptic clip featuring video snippets of each band and they lit up the internet. Now there's an entire online community talking about the tour and speculating about the bands involved. It's thrilling to see them communicate and respond so positively to this exciting tour."

"We're really looking forward to touring with our friends, Deftones and Mastodon," says Alice In Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell. "Each band has its own unique flavor and the combination of all three will make for a great show and a good time on the road."

Multi-platinum-selling headliners ALICE IN CHAINS are touring in support of Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin/EMI), which was named "Album of the Year" at the recent Revolver Golden Gods Award show. Fueled by the Grammy nominated smash "Check My Brain," which rocketed to No. 1 on the Billboard Rock Songs Chart, Black Gives Way To Blue entered Billboard's Top 200 at No. 5. They maintained momentum with follow-up hit "Your Decision," which also hit No. 1 on the Rock Songs Chart, along with a string of sold out headlining tours around the world. The album has also been drawing rave reviews from fans and critics alike: Playboy gave it four stars, calling it "Alice In Chains' Back In Black." The Boston Globe wrote "Alice In Chains is back in business and business is good," Metal Hammer said, "Alice In Chains are back and every bit as exciting and heavy" and a Guitar World magazine readers poll voted Black Gives Way To Blue "Rock Album of the Year."

DEFTONES, one of the most enduring and influential forces in modern rock, are gearing up for the May 4th release of long�awaited new album Diamond Eyes. The 6th full-length studio effort by the Grammy-winning, platinum-certified group was produced and mixed by Nick Raskulinecz (Alice in Chains, Coheed & Cambria, Foo Fighters). The band recorded the album after their best friend and bassist Chi Cheng sustained a debilitating brain injury from a car accident in November of 2008. "After Chi's accident, it would have been easy for us to make a sad record," says singer and guitarist Chino Moreno. "But really, this is an optimistic record." MySpace.com recently premiered a brand-new video for lead single "Diamond Eyes," which was shot in Los Angeles and directed by Roboshobo (Metallica, Mastodon, B-52's). Prior to hitting the road on BlackDiamondSkye, Deftones will play a string of U.S. shows, followed by dates overseas.

Globally celebrated, critically revered, hard rock masterminds MASTODON have created one of the most daring and praised albums in recent years with their current and 5th full-length effort Crack the Skye, which entered the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at #11. Following a spate of late night TV appearances and a pair of groundbreaking Roboshobo-directed videos, the band toured the world non-stop following the album's March 2009 release. Crack the Skye placed on numerous "Year End / Best of 2009" critics lists and readers polls, including an impressive No. 8 entry on the prestigious Village Voice Annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll's "Top 25 Albums of 2009" list. Time magazine placed it third on its list of the top ten "Best Albums of 2009," writing, "Thunderous, disciplined and expansive�the ambition and tenacity of Mastodon's music makes Crack The Skye sonically unforgettable." In recent months MASTODON has performed on their own, co-headlined with Dethklok and toured Europe and Latin America with Metallica, further expanding their notoriety as a peerless live force of nature.

"BlackDiamondSkye spotlights three distinctly different and influential artists and fuses their individual fanbases into a single entity," says Benveniste. "This is the poster kids will want to have on their walls, and ten years from now people will look back at this as a timeless and important tour."

BLACKDIAMONDSKYE dates are as follows:
(Additional dates to be announced soon)

Sep 16 Chicago, IL Charter One Pavilion at Northerly Island
Sep 17 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
Sep 18 Toronto, ON Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
Sep 20 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
Sep 22 Boston, MA Agannis Arena
Sep 24 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Sep 28 Atlanta, GA Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood
Oct 1 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
Oct 4 Denver, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Oct 7 Vancouver, BC General Motors Place
Oct 8 Seattle, WA Key Arena
Oct 9 Portland, OR Rose Quarter - Memorial Coliseum
Oct 16 Las Vegas, NV The Joint