LONDON--Alternative metal act Tool [ tickets ] has announced a major European tour to promote the release of its first new studio album in four years. The four-piece band will play mainly at festivals, but will also visit a handful of midsize venues along the way.

Tool, which emerged in 1993, will kick off a 21-date outing at the Dynamo Open Air Festival at Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on May 25, and will follow it with an appearance at Britain's Ozzfest on May 26.

"Laterlus," Tool's fourth studio LP, will be released on May 15. The band's frontman, Maynard James Keenen, spent much of 2000 on tour in support of "Mer de Noms" (Virgin), the debut album from his side band A Perfect Circle.