This 2023, Mastodon and Gojira will perform together as the headlining act. It will embark on the Mega-Monsters Tour, which will traverse North America this spring and summer. Each date will be introduced by Lorna Shore. The full schedule for the co-headlining tour is available here.
The bands will perform during the Mega-Monsters Tour, which gets underway on April 18 in Portland, Oregon, and covers the majority of the West Coast and the South.
After a brief break, the tours of Mastodon and Gojira will resume in June and July. Before ending the tour on September 2 in Greenwood Village, Colorado, they will perform on the East Coast and in the Midwest.
In 2021, Mastodon released their eighth album, Hushed and Grim. Medium Rarities was also released earlier by the Atlanta-based sludge metal band.
Gojira released Fortitude, their most recent album, in 2021. It was followed by the 2016 full-length Magma by the French avant-metal band.
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Mastodon
The Atlanta, Georgia, headquarters of the American heavy metal band Mastodon. The group, which was established in 2000, is comprised of Troy Sanders on bass and vocals, Brent Hinds on lead guitar and vocals, Bill Kelliher on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, and Brann Dailor on drums and vocals.
Eight studio albums, as well as a variety of miscellaneous releases, have been made by Mastodon. Remission, the band’s 2002 debut album, received high marks from critics for its distinctive sound.
Leviathan, the group’s second full-length release, is a concept album based on Herman Melville’s book Moby-Dick. Revolver, Kerrang!, and Rolling Stone all named the album “Album of the Year” in 2004.
Blood Mountain, the group’s third album, which was released in 2006, contained the song “Colony of Birchmen,” which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007 for Best Metal Performance.
Crack the Skye and The Hunter, both of which debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2011 and saw significant commercial success in the United States, were Blood Mountain’s immediate predecessors in 2009 and 2011, respectively.
The song “Curl of the Burl,” which appears on The Hunter, was nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance. The third Grammy-nominated song by Mastodon, “High Road,” can be found on the band’s 2014 album Once More ‘Round the Sun, which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Gojira
French heavy metal band Gojira hails from Ondres.
The band’s original members have remained the same since its name was changed to Gojira in 2001: brothers Joe (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Mario Duplantier (drums), Christian Andreu (lead guitar), and Jean-Michel Labadie (bass).
Gojira are renowned for their progressive and technical death metal genres as well as their lyrics, which often have spiritual, philosophical, or environmental themes.
The band’s career has seen a transition from “complete obscurity throughout the first half to widespread global recognition in the second.”
Terra Incognita (2001) and The Link (2003), Gojira’s first two albums, as well as their rousing live performances, helped them become known as a top French metal band. A silent film score called Maciste All’Inferno was written and played for a single performance in Bordeaux.
The British metal press reviewed their third album, the critically acclaimed From Mars to Sirius (2005), which included the songs “Backbone,” “The Heaviest Matter of the Universe,” and “Flying Whales.”
After that, the band joined Prosthetic Records, which increased their exposure in North America. The Way of All Flesh (2008), the follow-up album, debuted on the Billboard 200, and Gojira subsequently began their first foreign headlining tour.
The band started working with several metal artists to record the Sea Shepherd EP in a group setting. Roadrunner Records signed Gojira in 2011.
L’Enfant Sauvage (2012) and Magma (2016), two albums by the band, reached their highest points at thirty-four and twenty-four on the Billboard 200, respectively.
On their breakout album Magma, Gojira abandoned death metal in favor of a simpler sound. They released “Another World,” their first single to reach the Billboard chart, in 2020.
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Gojira and Mastodon Schedule:
04-18 Portland, OR – Veterans Memorial Coliseum
04-20 Concord, CA – Concord Pavilion
04-21 Los Angeles, CA – The Forum
04-22 Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
04-23 Las Vegas, NV – Virgin
04-26 Dallas, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
04-28 Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
04-29 Austin, TX – Moody Center
04-30 Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre
05-02 Nashville, TN – Municipal Auditorium
05-04 Boca Raton, FL – Sunset Cove Amphitheater
05-05 St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre
05-06 Atlanta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
05-07 Asheville, NC – Harrah’s Cherokee Center
05-09 Richmond, VA – Virginia Credit Union Live
05-10 Baltimore, MD – Pier Six Pavilion
05-11 Reading, PA – Santander Arena
08-09 Cincinnati, OH – MegaCorp Pavilion
08-10 Cleveland, OH – Jacob’s Pavilion
08-11 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE Outdoors
08-12 New York, NY – Coney Island Amphitheater
08-13 Syracuse, NY – OneCenter
08-15 Detroit, MI – Masonic Temple
08-17 Toronto, Ontario – RBC Echo Beach
08-18 Laval, Quebec – Place Bell
08-19 Portland, ME – Cross Insurance Arena
08-20 Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall
08-23 Milwaukee, WI – BMO Pavilion
08-25 Hammond, IN – Horseshoe
08-26 Omaha, NE – Westfair Amphitheater
08-27 Minneapolis, MN – Waite Park Amphitheater
08-29 St. Louis, MO – The Factory
08-30 Kansas City, MO – Azura Amphitheater
09-01 Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheater
09-02 Greenwood Village, CO – Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater
Photo: Ghost