TOURISM

I’ve been catching up on metal news today and came across news of three upcoming U.S. tours that are . . . newsworthy, to say the least.

I’m guessing this first one will be old news to many of you, since it surfaced on Friday, but it has sure produced some tumescence in your humble editor’s loins today. Behemoth, Watain, The Devil’s Blood, and In Solitude will be hitting the road for The Decibel Magazine Tour, a 26-date trail of wreckage across the U.S. starting in April. It will be the first Behemoth tour for Nergal since being diagnosed with and beating leukemia. That’s a cool tour flyer by Justin Bartlett up there, too.

More details, including tour dates, venues and ticket info, will be announced at www.decibelmagazinetour.com on January 24th.

But that’s just for starters. Mastodon’s Troy Sanders recently confirmed that his band plus Opeth and Ghost will be embarking on a North American tour of their own. During a recent interview at a Belgian radio station, Sanders stated: “We go to Australia to take part in the Soundwave Festival, which is going to be lovely, take a short break. Do a North American tour with Opeth and Ghost. And then take another break and come back over here for the European festival season.”

I have a feeling a few people will buy tickets for that tour. No further details are available at this time. (found this news via Loudwire)

And that’s not all. Would you believe a 30-date tour of the U.S. this summer by Agalloch?!?

Here’s a post that appeared today on Agalloch’s Facebook page: “US TOUR NEWS: Agalloch are currently organizing a 30 date tour of the US for Summer ’12. Updates will be posted here.”

This is seriously large news, (a) because it’s Agalloch, and (b) because Agalloch has never done a U.S. tour of this magnitude before. It’s usually a few dates here, a few dates there, on one coast or the other.

I’m extremely curious about who Agalloch will bring with them. They have very eclectic tastes in the kinds of bands with whom they choose to share the stage, and if they’re organizing this trek themselves, they’ll have free rein to pick their tour-mates, as well as local bands. Stay tuned . . .

So, which of these tours makes you moistest in the nether regions? And do you know of any other recent tour announcements I’ve missed?