Look, Up In The Skye! It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane … It’s A Tour!

The tour – named after AIC’s Black Gives Way to Blue combined with Deftones’ upcoming Diamond Eyes plus Mastodon’s Crack the Skye – was introduced to fans earlier this week with a few hints in the form of mysterious YouTube videos and a countdown clock posted on blackdiamondskye.com.

“Rather than launch with a traditional tour announcement, we wanted to engage the fans first,” said David “Beno” Benveniste, founder of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group, which represents AIC 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.”

The BlackDiamondSkye trek kicks off Sept. 16 at Charter One Pavilion @ Northerly Island in Chicago, with dates booked through an Oct. 16 gig at The Joint in Las Vegas.

Additional shows include Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in Toronto (Sept. 18), Agganis Arena at Boston University (Sept. 22), Madison Square Garden Arena in New York (Sept. 24), Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colo. (Oct. 4) and Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Ore. (Oct. 9).

More dates will be added soon.

“We’re really looking forward to touring with our fans, Deftones and Mastodon,” said 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.”

Tickets go on sale in select markets beginning May 15 through blackdiamondskye.com and LiveNation.com. A fan club pre-sale is slotted for May 10th for select dates.

Click here for the official website for BlackDiamondSkye.