It's about to be one big happy family at the Alamodome.

Avenged Sevenfold within the hour announced the Welcome To The Family tour, with special guests Three Days Grace and Bullet For My Valentine, and it includes a stop at the Illusions Theater at the Alamodome on Wednesday, May 18. Complete tour dates can be viewed here, with more to be announced. Sevendust is also advertised as being part of the tour, but they jump off before the San Antonio date, allowing Bullet For My Valentine to take over. Ticket information has not been announced.

Avenged Sevenfold, whose latest album Nightmare debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last summer, played the Rockstar Energy Uproar Festival in Corpus Christi last Sept. 11, one slot before headliners Disturbed. Bullet For My Valentine hasn't performed in San Antonio since the second annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival on Aug. 14, 2009, at the AT&T Center -- the last time the Mayhem Fest played the Alamo City -- sharing the indoor main stage with Killswitch Engage and co-headliners Slayer and Marilyn Manson.

The Illusion Theater has scored quite a coup of rock shows in its first year of existence. It debuted Feb. 9 when Disturbed, Korn, Sevendust and In This Moment played the Music As A Weapon 5 tour, although Disturbed had to cancel due to health reasons attributed to singer David Draiman. On Friday, April 8, Stone Sour headlines the theater with Theory of a Deadman, Skillet, Halestorm and Art of Dying (see more in links below).

Avenged Sevenfold toured the last quarter of 2010 with Mike Portnoy behind the drums following the Dec. 28, 2009, death of Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan. Portnoy had been chosen to help the band finish out the drum parts to Nightmare because he was Sullivan's favorite drummer. Three days before the Corpus Christi show, Portnoy announced he was leaving his founding band, Dream Theater, after 25 years because he wanted to take a break from recording, and the rest of Dream Theater disagreed.

Avenged Sevenfold and Portnoy parted ways after 2010, saying it was always the plan to finish out the year together, then to change course. Because A7X doesn't plan on adding a permanent drummer for a while, if ever, they will play San Antonio with a drummer other than Portnoy.

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