American doom legends SAINT VITUS have announcef the first of the confirmed dates for their upcoming February 2010 European tour featuring places that the band has never played or has not played in a very long time. A support band has not been chosen yet, but the preliminary dates are as follows:

Feb. 04 - Essen, Germany - Turock
Feb. 05 - Leipzig, Germany - Conne Island
Feb. 06 - Wurzburg, Germany - Posthalle
Feb. 07 - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Baroeg
Feb. 10 - London, England - Scala (w/ ORANGE GOBLIN)
Feb. 15 - Wien, Austria - Arena
Feb. 17 - Berlin, Germany - Columbia Club
Feb. 18 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
Feb. 19 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
Feb. 20 - Oslo, Norway - Betong

Additional dates and support acts will be named soon.

In other news, SAINT VITUS will play Los Angeles and San Francisco for the first time since 1988. Dates with openers SAVIOURS are as follows:

Jan. 28 - Key Club - Los Angeles, CA
Jan. 29 - DNA Lounge - San Francisco, CA

SAINT VITUS reunited in 2003 for two select shows in Germany and Chicago. Earlier this year, they headlined the Roadburn festival in Holland, which expanded to a sold-out warm up show in New Orleans and three select club shows in Germany. The band then returned to Europe this past summer to play a one-off show at the Hellfest in Clisson, France.

In an interview with Terrorizer magazine, Chandler stated about the band's growing popularity, "The irony of it all is a friend whom I used to complain to that things were not happening for us in the '80s said to me that to become popular, all I had to do was to disband and reform five years later. How true. But seriously, I don't know what really happened. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that during the time we were gone the whole doom scene was finally blossoming, at least in Europe, and a lot of those bands were mentioning us as one of their main influences. But it still feels weird. I work in a head shop here in New Orleans, I sell pipes, you know. And few times, some customers who there looking to buy some stuff would all of a sudden just freeze in front of me and go like, 'Wait a second, are you really who I'm thinking you are?' to which I would just answer like, 'Errrrrr, I don't know." Usually, they would then rave on about me being in SAINT VITUS and being some kind of legend or whatever. And the only thing I'd tell then would be, 'Really?'"

Fan-filmed video footage of SAINT VITUS performing at Hellfest in Clisson, France June 19, 2009 can be viewed below (courtesy of "ahabb616").